Bulgaria on Wednesday approved the construction of the first two American nuclear reactors, thus further freeing itself from Russia, on which the country was highly dependent for energy before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They will be of the AP1000 type, technology developed by the American Westinghouse, according to a government statement.
These two reactors, with a combined power of 2,300 megawatts (MW), will be built at the Kozlodoui nuclear power plant (north), “the first in 2033, the second two or three years later,” said Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov.
The plant currently has two Russian units, numbers 5 and 6, of the VVER type with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts each. They are licensed until 2027 and 2029, renewable, and supply more than a third of the country’s energy. The four oldest reactors were closed before Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 for safety reasons.
The government granted on Wednesday a tranche of 500 million levs (250 million euros) to start the project. These new reactors aim to replace coal-fired power plants that must close before 2038, according to the commitments made by the Government under pressure from Brussels to disassociate itself from this polluting industry.
Free yourself from Russia
Another nuclear power plant project on the Danube, in Béléné, west of Kozlodoui, was definitively abandoned in 2021 due to cost and profitability issues, while Moscow had already delivered two reactors. Bulgaria, which before the conflict in Ukraine was almost completely dependent on Moscow for energy, has accelerated its resource diversification strategy in recent months.
In this sense, Sofia applied in mid-October an exceptional tax on Russian gas that passes through its territory to reach Hungary and Serbia, much to the dismay of these two countries. This measure aims to “reduce the profits” of the Russian giant Gazprom, “and therefore the money that enters the Kremlin’s coffers to finance the war in Ukraine,” according to the Government.
Bulgaria no longer imports Russian gas for its own consumption, but remains a hub for its supply via the Turkstream gas pipeline. This infrastructure was expanded in early 2021 on its territory in order to supply Russian gas to Central Europe, avoiding Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
