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Monitoring Committee approved the Report for the Kozloduy Decommissioning Programme

11.11.2022

On 8th November 2022, a Monitoring Committee* on the implementation of the Kozloduy Programme for Decommissioning of Kozloduy NPP Units 1 to 4, was held in Luxembourg.

The meeting was chaired jointly by Massimo Garribba, Deputy Director-General of Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission (EC), responsible for Directorates “Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER” and “EURATOM safeguards”, and by the Deputy Minister of Energy, Elenko Bozhkov, as a Programme Coordinator on behalf of the Republic of Bulgaria for the Kozloduy NPP Units 1 to 4 Decommissioning Programme. The meeting was also attended by Jan Panek, Director of Directorate General for Energy, and other representatives of the Directorate, on the part of the EC, members of the KIDSF management team from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), as well as by experts from the Ministry of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) and State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW).

During the Committee meeting, a Report on the activities related to the decommissioning of the 440 MW Units in the first half of 2022 was presented.

The greatest achievement in the implementation of the Kozloduy Programme in this period was the successful completion of the decontamination of the Primary Circuits of Units 1 to 4 of the Nuclear Power Plant, as reported during the meeting. Another focus for SERAW was the dismantling of equipment in the Controlled Area and progress towards the Specific Objectives. During the reporting period, the 5th campaign of the Plasma Melting Facility was completed. The report particularly notes that implementation of the construction activities on Phase 1 of the National Disposal Facility for Low  and Intermediate-level Radioactive Waste continued in a safe manner.

The Monitoring Committee approved the Report presented for the first six months. The preceding Monitoring Mission by the EC and EBRD, held on the spot at Kozloduy on 20-21 October this year, brought about the approval. Within the scope of the mission, the representatives carried out a comprehensive walkdown of the facilities, which included premises in the Controlled Area of Units 1 to 4, the National Disposal Facility site, and a newly-built workshop for production of reinforced-concrete containers (RCC) for packaging of RAW currently under construction.


In accordance with Council Regulation of the European Union on the provision of grant funds to Bulgaria in the process of decommissioning of nuclear facilities* and the applicable procedures, the implementation of activities which are financed by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF), shall be subject to regular monitoring. Pursuant to the current rules, the Decommissioning Programme progress shall be monitored every six months in several successive steps. SERAW shall draft a Monitoring Report presenting the implementation of the planned activities for the respective period, which shall be reviewed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and submitted to the Directorate-General for Energy (ENER) of the European Commission (EC). This is followed by on-the-spot visit to the Kozloduy site by European Commission representatives in order to directly monitor on-the-spot the implementation of the activities specified in the document. The procedure ends with a final meeting of the Committee at which the results of the monitoring shall be summarised and the Monitoring Report shall accordingly be approved.

*COUNCIL REGULATION (EURATOM) 2021/100

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