Stanislav Georgiev: There is no limit to the extension of the operating period of the units at the Kozloduy NPP

There are no first-circuit accidents reported at Kozloduy NPP. Stanislav Georgiev, executive secretary of Bulatom, explained this to BNR.

“There are technological ones that are obtained at the facilities in the second loop. This is a normal process. It should not be a big problem that scares the public.”

Stanislav Georgiev explained that the lessons that the world has learned from the nuclear accidents in “Chernobyl” and “Fukushima” are very clear.

“At the moment, the construction of new nuclear power plants is being discussed only with third-generation projects, the fourth generation is also being discussed. They are of a new type and provide the maximum opportunity to isolate and prevent human errors, which were the basis of both incidents already accidents”.

There is no limit to the increase in the service life of these facilities, explained Georgiev.

“In a nuclear facility, the critical infrastructure that cannot be replaced is the reactor vessel. Everything else is replaceable. The only limitation is the technological level of the facility from a safety perspective.”

In our NPP, there are strictly written rules, according to which in case of an accident, it is immediately reported to the management of the plant, to our Nuclear Regulatory Agency, and to the international one, he also pointed out.

Stanislav Georgiev noted that there is a problem with the Zaporizhia NPP.

“It is important to preserve its integrity. Everything depends on the people who will exploit it”

The information that came out from “Kozloduy” is that the plant has concluded contracts for the supply of the 5th and 6th blocks of fuel from the “Westinghouse” company, Georgiev reminded.

“For the 6th, fuel will also be received from the Framatom company. Delivery terms are different”.

He acknowledged that spent nuclear fuel is a problem.

“Currently, it is stored at the site of the Kozloduy NPP. The rules for this indicate that cartridges with spent nuclear fuel must remain for 5 years in the so-called aging pools. After that, the plant has the option of storing them in a special wet repository. The next stage is to process it in one of the countries that offer such processing. These are Russia and France. France has given a positive answer that it can do it. In Russia, this cannot be done at the moment.”

The price of electricity is determined by the European exchange, the expert explained.

The entire interview of Tanya Milusheva and Yuliana Kornazheva with Stanislav Georgiev can be heard here.