Units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant can work for at least 20 years more than planned, according to preliminary estimates related to the life extension program for the two facilities.

The initial results of the probes were presented Wednesday by Lachezar Kostov, head of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency.

Kostov, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio, made clear that the design lifetime of units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP expired in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

He said that the consultant on the project, WorleyParsons, was evaluating the documentation already provided by the Kozloduy NPP.

The BNRA head announced that the results of the first stage of the evaluation of the condition of the reactors showed that the residual resource of the facilities allowed an extension of the license by at least 10 years.  

Kostov pointed out that a series of additional inspections were expected to show that the design lifetime could be extended by at least 20 years, adding that this had already been done at a number of other N-plants.

He said that the BNRA had to be given a few documents more in order to issue a permit for the construction of the site for unit 7 of the Kozloduy NPP.

The BNRA Chair reminded that Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Water had approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project on Tuesday.

Kostov declared that he BNRA would issue the site approval order once they were given the necessary documents, adding that this would allow the applicant to move forward to seeking a designing permit.

He noted that the BNRA had issued two permits for the decommissioning of the closed units 1 and 2 of the Kozloduy NPP.

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