Bulgarian NPP CEO: Referendum Said 'Yes' to Expanding Kozloduy Plant

The voters who said "yes" in Bulgaria's nuclear referendum on Sunday in fact supported the construction of a seventh and eighth reactor at its existing NPP in Kozloduy, believes Valentin Nikolov, CEO of the Kozloduy NPP.

Nikolov commented Sunday night the results of the referendum, which had a voter turnout of only 22%, with 61% voting in favor of the construction of a second nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, while 39% voted against.

Even though the turnout is not sufficient to make the result of the referendum binding, it is still enough to take the question to the Bulgarian Parliament.

"It was clear for everybody that we won't reach the required voter turnout. But pay attention that there were many people who talked against the Belene NPP but nobody said anything against the construction of a 7th unit at the Kozloduy NPP," Nikolov stated.

Rasho Parvanov, local leader in the town of Kozloduy of the ruling party GERB, and an official at the Kozloduy NPP, stated in turn that Bulgaria should have started the construction of a seventh reactor at the plant when it was forced by the EU to shut down its units 1 and 2 back in 2002.

The construction of a seventh unit, of 1000 MW, at the Kozloduy NPP instead of building two 2000 MW units in Belene, and the extension of the lives of the two running Kozloduy reactors has been touted by Bulgaria's rulers GERB as a key solution for the nation's energy matters.

In the nuclear referendum on Sunday, the voter turnout in the Kozloduy Municipality reached 30%. The Kozloduy Municipality has a population of 17 000. Of those, 4 000 are employed at the Kozloduy NPP.