BULGARIA SELECTS CONSULTANT FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE DEPOT

A consortium including US energy group Westinghouse has been selected to draft the technical aspect and carry out safety analysis for a radioactive waste facility near the town of Kozloduy, on the Danube river, Bulgaria's Economy Ministry said on October 25 2011.

The contract was signed on October 25 by Dilyan Petrov, executive head of Bulgaria's Radioactive Waste State Company (RWSC) and Westinghouse Electric Spain, Germany's DBE Technology and Spain's ENRESA Spain.

The low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste facility, which will store tools, protective clothing and equipment irradiated during work at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, is worth about 120 million euro and will be put on stream in 2015.

The preparation of the technical aspect and safety analysis, the last step before launching a tender for selecting a project contractor, will cost eight million euro. The money will come from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund, which is administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The tender for choosing a contractor for the facility will be announced in mid-2012, according to Petrov.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project was approved in early October by Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova. In addition to waste from the Kozloduy nuke plant, the repository could also deposit radioactive waste from the nuclear facility in Belene should it be built. Spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste will not be stored, RWSC said.