Bulgaria started construction of a national repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste
yesterday, marking the occasion with a ceremony. The repository is
being built at the Radiana site, close to the Kozloduy nuclear power
plant.
Bulgarian energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova and executive director of the State Enterprise
Radioactive
Waste (SERAW) Dilyan Petrov broke ground for the new facility. SERAW is
responsible for the decommissioning of reactors 1-4 at the Kozloduy
nuclear power plant and the national
radioactive
waste disposal facility.
The repository will be a near-surface trench-type facility featuring
multi-barrier protection for the storage of low- and intermediate-level
waste (LLW/ILW) in reinforced concrete packages. It will be used to store such
waste from industry, medicine and households, wastes generated from the
decommissioning of Kozloduy units 1-4 and from the future operation of
nuclear power plants. The repository, which will not be used for storing
high-level
waste or used nuclear fuel, will have a capacity of
138,200 cubic meters of waste. It is expected to be commissioned in 2021
and operate for about 60 years. The facility will then be closed and
closely monitored for another 300 years.
The first stage of construction is being funded with a €71.8 million
($85.7 million) grant from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning
Support Fund, which is administered by the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development.
SERAW signed a contract for the facility's construction in July 2016
with a consortium consisting of Germany's Nukem Technologies, which is
owned by Russia's AtomStroyExport, and four Bulgarian companies.
The construction of the repository is part of the commitments made by
Bulgaria in its accession to join the European Union. During EU
accession negotiations, Bulgaria also committed to closing Kozloduy 1
and 2 by the end of 2002 and units 3 and 4 by the end of 2006. All four
units are V-230 model VVER-440 reactors, which the European Commission
had earlier classified as non-upgradable. Bulgaria joined the EU on 1
January 2007.
Petkova said, "The construction of the repository is a
sine qua non for
the development of nuclear energy in Bulgaria. The construction of the
facility is also enshrined in the present program of the Bulgarian
government for the period 2017-2021."
(novinite.com, August 30, 2017)