Bulgaria's Sole Nuclear Plant Sets Production Record

The Minister of Economy and Energy, Traicho Traikov, attended the setting of the production record at Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant, Kozloduy. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's sole Nuclear Power Plant, Kozloduy, set a record Tuesday with its two working units (Unit 5 and Unit 6), producing the highest quantity of electricity in their history.

Shortly after 2 pm on Tuesday, the best result since 2008, when the annual production reached 15.765 billion kWh, was surpassed, announced the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism.

The setting of the record was attended by the Minister of Economy and Energy, Traicho Traikov, the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Sergey Tsochev, and the CEOs of the National Electricity Company (NEK) - Michael Andonov, of the Electricity System Operator, Ivan Yotov and of Maritza East Mines - Evgeni Stoykov.

"NPP Kozloduy not only achieved the highest production results compared to all plants with such reactors, but it is among those with the lowest levels of safety incidents" said Traicho Traikov.

In his words, Kozloduy has the best indicators of effective performance and safety level.

"Of all priorities of nuclear energy, for us safety comes first, and when we are certain that it is observed, only then we focus on economic performance," the Minister stressed.

By the end of the year over 500 kWh are expected to be produced, and the total will be close to 1 billion kWh more than what was produced in 2010, specified the Ministry.

According to Traikov this means an additional EUR 73 M.

"For me, these results indicate that people here work competently – both the leadership and the entire team fulfill successfully their duties. From my perspective, they have the capacity to handle Unit 7 as well, and this is the direction of our work now," said Traikov.

The Minister stressed that NPP Kozloduy continues to be a major pillar of the Bulgarian energy sector and the continuing resource of Units 5 and 6 is top priority. He explained the plans were to increase the power of the two reactors with another 100 MW by the end of 2013.

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