The Bulgarian parliament decided Friday to ask the European Union to consider the re-opening of two reactors, closed for safety reasons since 2006, at the country's sole nuclear plant in Kozloduy.
Parliament voted 140 to 48 in favor of a motion to request the European Commission to examine the possibility of re-opening the two reactors, which were shut because of E.U. safety concerns hours before Bulgaria joined the E.U. on Jan. 1, 2007.
In the parliamentary vote Friday, there were 23 abstentions.
The E.U. had sought the closure of the old but modernized VVER 440-megawatt reactors, which lacked stable confinement structures in case of a radioactive leak.
"The government has been instructed to examine, in cooperation with the (E.U.) Commission, the possibility of restarting the reactors in line with E.U. law and in accordance with the technical possibilities and security requirements," the motion said.
Sofia would also "ask the appropriate E.U. bodies to rethink their ruling that the reactors must be shut down in (the) face of the international and economic crisis and the current energy supply crisis," it stated.
Both Bulgaria and Slovakia were ordered to shut down their old nuclear reactors as a condition of E.U. membership but have talked about restarting them again in the light of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute.
The crisis has hit Bulgaria especially hard as it relies almost entirely on Russian deliveries via Ukraine for its gas needs.