Bulgarian State Enterprise Radioactive Waste SE (SERAW) said it signed a EUR 72 million contract to build a radioactive waste disposal facility for its Kozloduy nuclear power plant. It should be completed within 60 months and the repository is to be commissioned in 2021, according to the statement posted on its website. The agreement was signed with a consortium led by German Nukem Technologies GmbH, with four Bulgarian companies.
Dilyan Petrov, head of Seraw, and the authorized representatives of a German-Bulgarian Consortium National Disposal Facility, signed the contract in presence of Nikolay Nikolov, Bulgaria’s energy deputy minister, and Vince Novak, director of Nuclear safety Department at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which funded the project through a grant from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund.
Nikolov stressed the National Disposal Facility project is of exceptional importance for the safe management of radioactive waste generated from the operation of Kozloduy nuclear power plant and the decommissioning of units 1 to 4 of the nuclear power plant.
The facility will consist of concrete containers and adjacent buildings and facilities. The construction of the National Disposal Facility is a national priority for Bulgaria and the future repository will not be used for disposal of spent nuclear fuel or radioactive waste from third countries, the statement adds.
