The energy concern RWE, which is based in the German province of Essen, is willing to help the Bulgarian N-plant Kozloduy for the transportation of the exhausted nuclear fuel to storages in Russia where it is further processed, German daily Berliner Zeitung announced. Ralf Scheffer, press secretary of RWE Trading – a subsidiary of the concern, confirmed that negotiations were held with the management of the Kozloduy N-plant on electricity deliveries. However the electricity will be supplied not to Germany but to Eastern Europe. Thus the N-plant will have the necessary foreign currency to pay for the procession of the exhausted nuclear fuel in Russia. Scheffer commented that details like the quantity and the prices of the contract were RWE commercial secret.

According to a contract of June 16, 2000, which is available to Berliner Zeitung as well as to the environmentalists’ organization Greenpeace, the management of the Kozloduy N-plant and the Russian company Techsnabexport agreed on the transportation of Bulgarian exhausted nuclear fuel to Russia and its further procession there. USD 24.8 M was to be paid for the “transportation, technical maintenance and further procession as well as for the storage of the radioactive wastes”. Techsnabexport was acting on the behalf of Minatom.

According to the information of Greenpeace, first deliveries have already been transported to Russia. Tobias Munchmeier, Greenpeace expert on nuclear power plants, claimed in an interview for Berliner Zeitung that “RWE should withdraw from participation in the Russian-Bulgarian nuclear cartel and should stop assisting the dangerous and illegal transportation of Bulgarian radioactive wastes to Russia”.

The Kozloduy N-plant includes six units, first four of them being of the type VVER-400/230, which were produced in the USSR and are considered to be unfit for modernization. According to an agreement with the EU, units 1 and 2 of the N-plant are to be decommissioned at the end of 2002. Decommissioning of units 3 and 4 is scheduled for 2005. Units 5 and 6, which are of the type VVER-1000 are to be modernized with the assistance of the EU.

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