Bogomil Manchev: More than 1500 trained engineers are needed to work on the new nuclear reactors

More than 1500 trained engineers are needed in Bulgaria, who will be able to work with the reactors of the new third generation. This was announced by the Chairman of the Bulgarian Atomic Forum – BulAtom Dr. Eng. Bogomil Manchev during his participation in the largest and most successful forum for green transformation – “Green Transition Forum 4.0: New Perspectives for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)”, organized for the fourth consecutive year by Dir.bg and 3E News.

The three-day event started on June 26 and lasted until June 28 in the conference stages of the Sofia Event Center in the capital. During the forum, more than 2500 participants, including over 750 top managers from 18 different countries, led the key conversation about tomorrow’s world.

Manchev took part in the seventh and final session of the second day of the forum, entitled “The Strategic Role of Nuclear Energy in Achieving Decarbonization Goals”, moderated by Anton Ivanov, Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Energy and Mining Forum.

In the panel, in addition to Manchev, Valentin Nikolov, Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP, Oscar Pratt, Senior Director of the AP1000 Project “Westinghouse”, Joe Philipsz, Senior CEE Investment and Infrastructure Expert and Chair of SFT, Prof. Georgi Kaschiev, Chief Expert at Kozloduy NPP (2021-2024), Prof. Dr. Eng. Ivaylo Ganev, Chairman of the Technical College at the Technical University of Sofia, and Petyo Ivanov, Executive Director of “Kozloduy NPP – New Builds “.

At the beginning of his speech, Dr. Eng. Bogomil Manchev emphasized that he, as Chairman of the Bulgarian Atomic Forum, its member companies, as well as all of the engineering, repair, installation and construction infrastructure, 100% support the state’s decision to develop and build the two units – 7th and 8th of Kozloduy NPP.

“There was a timelessness between the modernization of the 5th and 6th units and the decision for new capacities, because after all, our task is to keep ourselves alive – to reduce the ambient temperature and to fulfil as a state the clean energy that we can provide to the economy and to the people and make it predictable”, Manchev commented.

According to him, nuclear energy is not an end in itself, it is not even a fact that can be circumvented.

“We have to provide basic clean energy that can work 8000 hours a year. All other energies in Bulgaria – water hardly reaches 2800 hours to work, sun – 1400 hours, wind tries to catch up with 2200 hours. And as you can see, one a segment of 6,500 hours is uncovered. No matter how much we store, no matter how much energy is stretched, we cannot reach 8,760 hours,” emphasized the chairman of BulAtom and added:

“I say this to explain why we as a country must make every effort, and we as a nuclear community, to put these units into commercial operation in a timely manner. In order to be able to partially solve about 70-75% of the energy we extract from hydrocarbons, respectively to develop very intensively the renewable energy sources, which will be the superstructure of this energy.”

According to Manchev, all this will be possible once there is a sufficient number of trained personnel.
“A large part of the companies during this period, which I told you that as a timelessness, many of the colleagues reduced their staff because they participate in few projects. The bilateral meetings they held with Westinghouse and Hyundai gave them confidence and they are starting to make their plans on how to increase their staff to be adequate to what is to come”, Manchev explained.

And he emphasized that several types of engineers are needed to work on the current stage of the construction of the 7th and 8th units of the nuclear power plant.
“One type of engineers are those who understand the construction of a power plant and the investment part 1. The other part of the engineers must understand from the Spatial Planning Act the control that must be done on the construction of a facility, no matter how complex it is. And last but not least – the vast majority of engineers that we have to produce who will work as subcontractors on behalf of Westinghouse and Hyundai as designers who have to do detailed designs. These are over 1500 engineers. At the moment in Bulgaria, when we collect them all, we reach 350”, Manchev stressed.

According to him, the preparation and search for personnel will not stop there, as the positive EIA analysis for Unit 8 should also be released.

“This will give a fairly strong impetus to the scientific potential of educational institutions to produce personnel. I mean the Technical University, Sofia University, the University of Civil Engineering. We, as companies, will be able to refresh our middle age with people,” said the Chairman of BulAtom, explaining that it is these trained engineers who will install and put into operation the facilities, manage them, make repairs and maintenance, because such a facility is “alive” and needs to be developed every year.

“Therefore, the scientific potential, the engineering potential, the installers, the repairs must be at a modern high level, because the new technology, which is the third generation of reactors, it is managed differently than the second generation of reactors and we must create these personnel. This is what our colleagues saw during the bilateral meetings”, Bogomil Manchev was adamant and reiterated that the 7th and 8th units are “vital for our economy to survive and take another step”.

“After 2040, we need to think about two other units at the Belene site in order to replace the 5th and 6th units, to replace part of the energy, and large consumers should be part of the modeling and management of the system”, said Dr. Eng. Bogomil Manchev.

Source: dir.bg