Bulgarian President warns nuclear shutdowns could lead to instability
(BRUSSELS) - Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov on Thursday criticised an EU required shutdown of two of his country's nuclear reactors, warning that it could lead to instability in the region.
Parvanov said he had been "provoked" by comments by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who on Tuesday ruled out reopening the two reactors, while stressing his readiness to discuss energy problems facing Sofia and its neighbours.
Piebalgs cited safety concerns for the shutdown of the two nuclear reactors at Bulgaria's only plant at Kozloduy, in the northwest, on December 31 as part of the requirements to join the European Union the following day.
The whole region faces a "severe energy crisis" as a result of the nuclear shutdowns, Parvanov said in an address to the European Parliament in Brussels.
"Some of the countries have suffered serious energy and power cuts and when you combine this with an increase in prices this may lead to political and economic instability in the whole region," he warned.
"Safety is our number one issue," Parvanov assured the MEPs, adding that was the reason for the 2002 shutdown of two other reactors at the plant, where the final two of the original six remain in operation
International energy experts from groups including the International Atomic Energy Agency all studied reactors three and four, those closed in December, and "concluded that there were no technical barriers to the day-to-day operations of these units", the Bulgarian leader said.
Parvanov said Bulgaria would accept a "peer review" of the reactors in question in a bid to get them reopened.
Bulgaria has been one of the Balkans' main exporters of energy, exporting some 7.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2006.
It mothballed its two oldest 440-megawatt reactors, one and two, in 2002 but these have yet to be dismantled. Sofia then shut down two other old but revamped 440-megawatt blocs, three and four, in order to secure EU accession in 2007.
Only the two most modern 1,000-megawatt reactors remain in operation at Kozloduy and there are no plans to close them down. Bulgaria plans to build a second nuclear plant in Belene in the north of the country in 2013.
The EU has cited studies conducted in 1992 by the Group of Seven most industrialised nations stating that reactors of the Kozloduy type cannot be modernised at a reasonable price and should be shut down due to security concerns.
The problems caused by the reactor shutdowns is expected to be on the agenda at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels on February 15-16.
