Bulgaria's Prime Minister appointed Thursday an interdepartmental working group for the future development of the country's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant.

The group is supposed to assist the cabinet in the crafting and adoption of an official concept for the development of the nuclear power station.

The experts are to make a detailed analysis of Bulgaria's existing commitments before the European Commission as well as any agreements with other international and national institutions with respect to the closing of Units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy Plant.

The group is also expected to evaluate the success of the rehabilitation of Units 5 and 6, and to use this experience for the formulation of a development strategy.

One of key tasks of the new committee would be to identify any opportunities for the future re-opening of the power plant units that are already out of operation.

The working group is headed by the Deputy Minister of Energy and Economy Galina Tosheva. Its members include the President's Advisor Dragomir Stoynev, and representatives of other relevant institutions.

Only the two 1000-MW units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP are currently in operation after the 440-MW units 3 and 4 were closed down after pressure from the EU, whose main argument was that they were not safe enough.

The closing down of Units 3 and 4, however, has been widely regarded as pre-mature and unfair in Bulgaria, and has sparked heated public debate and various initiatives to reverse the measure.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!