Bulgaria to shut two nuclear reactors ahead of EU entry

(KOZLODUI) - ==

Two hours before Bulgaria enters the European Union at the stroke of midnight Sunday, it will close down part of its only nuclear power plant, sacrificing valuable energy exports.

The decision to close two reactors by 10 pm (2000 GMT) Sunday has been taken reluctantly but is part of the price of entry to the EU which, with the New Year's Day arrival of Romania and Bulgaria, will grow to 27 members.

Reactors three and four, each with a capacity of 440 megawatts (MW), at the plant at Kozlodui in the northeast of the country will cease to operate for safety reasons.

It will take some three hours to shut them down, Kozlodui director Ivan Guenov said.

Guenov said the reactors' nuclear fuel must stay at the site for three years before it can be stocked in a waste facility.

It will take eight years to dismantle the reactors' non-radioactive parts and 25 years to take apart radioactive equipment, he said.

Bulgarians are not happy about the reactors being shut down.

Their output "is roughly equal to the annual energy exports of the country," the plant's production director Kiril Nikolov told AFP.

Bulgaria is the chief supplier of electricity to the Balkan states.

Based on 1992 studies conducted by the G7 group of industrialised nations, the EU believes that reactors of this type (VVER 440-230) cannot be modernised at a reasonable price and should be shut down due to security concerns.

An Alpha Research poll carried out last year said that 75.4 percent of Bulgarians oppose the closure of the two reactors.

As part of EU membership negotiations, Bulgaria closed down at the end of 2002 its two oldest reactors at Kozlodui. Reactors three and four will follow suit on December 31, despite the significant investment already made in their modernisation.

Two more modern reactors, each producing 1,000 MW, will be kept running.

Vladimir Branov, an operator on reactor three, said the closure decision was not logical. "Purely political criteria have been applied," he said.

Atanas Buinov, who lives in Kozlodui, which is situated on the Danube 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of the capital Sofia, said: "If I already pay more than half my pension for electricity, what will happen next year?"

Reactors three and four produce energy that is the cheapest in the Balkans because they have been operating since 1980-82 and their initial cost has been paid off, according to Nikolov, who predicted energy prices from Kozlodui would rise by 19 percent in 2007.

The Bulgarian government has bowed to EU pressure but is looking for extra compensation.

The EU is due to pay Sofia 550 million euros (725 million dollars) to make up for the closure of the four reactors and encourage economy in the use of energy.

Nikolov said however that "it is ridiculous to talk of compensation", since the plant has been stripped of production capacity worth three to four billion euros.

European diplomats in Sofia say the issue is closed.

"Bulgaria has signed the membership agreement, it must respect it," said one.

"We are not against nuclear energy: reactors five and six at Kozlodui continue to operate and a new plant will be built at Belene (in the north)."

Bulgaria has signed a deal with the Russian company Atomstroyexport, whose subcontractors are Areva and Siemens, to build a second nuclear plant with a 2000 MW capacity, due to enter service around 2012.