The European Union stuck to its guns yesterday over the fate of two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors in Bulgaria, saying they must stay shut and be dismantled.
Bulgaria closed the two 440-megawatt reactors at its Kozloduy nuclear power plant as part of its treaty to join the EU this year. The EU deems the units unsafe, although Bulgarian officials have disputed that view.
But the closure has led to power shortages in the region, prompting Balkan countries to ask the EU this week to let Bulgaria reopen the reactors.
“The closure was decided upon in the accession treaty,” European Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny told a daily news briefing.
He said Bulgaria was receiving hundreds of millions of euros to help dismantle the reactors, decommission waste and create new generation capacity.
Bulgaria has deemed the aid insufficient, noting that fellow EU newcomers Slovakia and Lithuania were to receive more funds to decommission their reactors.
Bulgaria exported a record 7.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006, but plans almost no exports this year because of the units’ shutdown.
(Reuters, 14/03/2007)