The State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SE RAW) presented its traditional Honey Festival as an official Knowledge Product, published on the website of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission.
For the seventeenth consecutive year, SERAW brought together producers, artisans and visitors at the Honey Festival in Kozloduy. The two-day event, held on 27–28 February 2026 at the enterprise’s Information Centre, recorded a record number of participants. A total of 48 producers of honey and bee products from the region and neighbouring areas with traditions in beekeeping, along with representatives of Bulgarian crafts and applied arts, took part in the exhibition and tasting events. Among them were eight debut participants, presenting their products to festival visitors for the first time.
This year’s edition also brought an important recognition: the Honey Festival was officially presented as SE RAW’s Knowledge Product* for 2025, published on the website of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. This marks another step in systematising and sharing the enterprise’s unique experience with other EU Member States in the field of safe decommissioning and radioactive waste management.
Elisaveta Mladenova, Deputy Executive Director for Finance, Administration and Security at SERAW, explained the symbolism of the event:
“The event is called the Honey Festival because it celebrates both the joy of the results achieved through the participants’ work, perseverance and creativity, and the connection between people and nature.”
This connection lies at the heart of the long-standing initiative: bees are a living indicator of a clean environment, while the honey produced in the Kozloduy region stands as a powerful testament that technology and nature can coexist in harmony.
The festival’s accompanying programme featured a series of meetings and presentations that attracted both professionals and curious visitors. Borislav Bumov from Lovech, holder of the title Beekeeper of the Year – 2024, shared insights into the intricacies of queen bee production. Anna Ivanova from Tryavna immersed the audience in the topic of the “secret ingredient” behind both products and life itself, while Manuela Nikolova from Troyan spoke about the home as the foundation of a healthy lifestyle and the role of natural materials in construction.
On both days of the festival, the youngest visitors had the opportunity to participate in creative workshops. Manuela Nikolova challenged them to weave their own Martenitsa bracelets, while Stanimir Nikolov demonstrated the magic of woodturning on a training wood lathe. A special interactive game for all visitors, titled “Like the Little Bees”, also became an entertaining challenge for many of the guests.
________________________________________
*About the Knowledge Product
In accordance with Council Regulation (Euratom) 2021/100 of 25 January 2021, SE RAW, in cooperation with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, systematises its unique experience in specific areas of its activities and presents it in the form of a Knowledge Product.
The overall objective of the Kozloduy Programme is to support Bulgaria in addressing safety-related challenges associated with the decommissioning of Units 1–4 of Kozloduy NPP, while also increasing the added value for the European Union through the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of all Member States.
