Bulgaria is to receive a total of EUR 260 M from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund by 2020, according to MEP Ingeborg Gr?ssle.

Gr?ssle heads a delegation of MEPs tasked with inspecting the progress of the decommissioning activities for the four stopped units of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

The delegation of MEPs also visited N-plants in Lithuania and Slovakia, which are also running nuclear decommissioning procedures in line with their EU accession treaties, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

Bulgarian socialist MEP Ivaylo Kalfin, a member of the delegation, announced that the inspection was being conducted because the decommissioning process was being implemented with EU funding.

He noted, however, that the report from the probe would be of no official consequence for the country.

Gr?ssle expressed satisfaction with the visit to the Bulgarian N-plant and informed that the probe had established that decommissioning activities were actually taking place.

She told journalists that the delegation had been given a lot of information but the report would only be published after the MEPs were provided with additional information relating to a number of unclear issues.

She pointed out that Bulgaria had to decide what shortage of funding it would face in the sphere of decommissioning in the next programming period.

Kalfin explained that the funding under the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund by 2013 amounted to a total of EUR 867 M, including direct costs of dismantling the units and indirect costs such as energy efficiency measures.

Bulgaria sought extra funding of EUR 860 M for the period 2013 – 2030 but the country will only be allocated EUR 260 M for direct expenses for the decommissioning of the stopped units of the Kozloduy NPP.

Joachim Zeller, a member of the delegation, suggested that the money provided by the EU for nuclear decommissioning would only be available by 2020.

Kalfin, however, specified that Bulgaria would ask the EU to fulfill its commitment to provide funding by 2030 just as the country had fulfilled its commitment to stop the N-plant units.

The inspection of the delegation of MEPs established delays in four projects for the treatment of waste from the four stopped units of the Kozloduy NPP but this conclusion will not affect the budget of the Kozloduy Decommissioning Fund.

Gr?ssle recommended subjecting funds under the Kozloduy Decommissioning Fund to the control of Bulgaria's National Audit Office, apart from the oversight of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, adding that the step had to be authorized through a decision of the European Parliament.