A file picture shows workers during the construction of the first 1,000 MW unit of the second nuclear plant of Belene, Bulgaria. Photo by EPA/BGNES
The old reactor, manufactured in the 80s of the 20th century, for the future Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene in Bulgaria will be of use after all, the Bulgarian National Television, BNT, reported.
The reactor is currently being installed at Unit 4 of the Kalinin NPP, located about 200 kilometers northwest of the Russian capital Moscow, in Tver Oblast near the town of Udomlya. Russian experts say there is nothing alarming in the fact the reactor is from the older, second generation and give it another 40 years of live.
The reactor in question spent 16 years on the Danube shore and was later taken back by the Russians, leaving behind a huge hole filled with water. Finally, some 30 years after Bulgaria made the decision to build a second NPP, the reactor will find its place.
Bulgaria is to receive the most modern reactors if it decides to build Belene, the Russian side has promised.
According to the Vice President of "Atomstroyexport," Genadiy Tepkiyan, the reactors in Belene will be from generation 3 to 3+, not 2, as Bulgaria's Energy and Economy Minister, Traicho Traikov, has stated.
"We are going to send a letter to Traikov to tell him it is not appropriate for a Minister to give wrong information," Tepkiyan points out.