Extending the service life of units 5 and 6 at the Bulgarian Kozloduy nuclear power plant and building a new generation capacities are priority tasks for the plant in 2013, its Executive Director Valentin Nikolov told newswires.
'The Russian-French consortium of Rosenergoatom and Electricite de France is conducting a comprehensive residual life assessment of the equipment and a study for the construction of two 1,000 MW units,' Nikolov said.
The final decision on the construction of unit 7 would be made before the end of this year. 'We plan to use the equipment made for the Belene NPP,' the director said. 'If the talks with the Russian contractor [Atomstroyexport] bear no fruit, we will start drafting a new project.'
He noted that Izhora Plants, which manufactured the equipment for the Belene NPP, did not object to its transfer to Kozloduy.
Last year, Westinghouse Electric Company received a contract from the Kozloduy nuclear power plant to perform a feasibility study on a potential seventh unit for the plant.
The required study will include a review of two potential designs: a reactor of VVER design using equipment already purchased by the customer together with Westinghouse instrumentation and control (I&C) systems, fuel and a Toshiba Corporation turbine generator, and the construction and operation of a pressurised water reactor (PWR) 1000-1200 MW design, the company said.
Westinghouse said it would perform this study with Kozloduy NPP - New Build PLC calling upon its experience at Kozloduy and other VVER units.
The Kozloduy nuclear power plant is a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated 200 kilometres north of Sofia and 5 kilometres east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant and the largest in the region. The construction of the first reactor began on April 6, 1970.
The plant was commissioned in 1974. In 1991-2002, it operated all six reactors that meet almost 50 percent of the domestic demand for electricity. In 2003-2006, four reactors were stopped for safety reasons as Bulgaria was in the process of admission to the European Union.
Kozloduy NPP currently manages 2 pressurised water reactors with a total output of 2,000 MW. Units 5 and 6, constructed in 1987 and 1991 respectively, are VVER-1000 reactors. By 2014 they will be upgraded to reach a capacity of 1,100 MW each. Their service life expires in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
The Bulgarian government decided to install in Kozloduy a 1,000 MW reactor that the Russian state-owned company Atomstroyexport already produced for the Belene NPP. The Belene Nuclear Power Plant project was terminated in late March 2012.
Source: bne