Fri, Feb 10 2012
Bulgarian Branch Chamber of Energetics (BCE) issued a media statement on January 28, saying that restarting blocks 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) was "the only way to head off the energy crisis in the region."
According to BCE, an NGO of employers in the energy branch, there was no technical reason to shut down the two blocks of the Kozloduy NPP.
The statement was published a few days after Euro commissioner for energy Andris Piebalgs said there was no chance at to restart blocks 3 and 4 of Kozloduy. Piebalgs qualified the Bulgarian national campaign to restart the two blocks as "politically unfair", saying that "an appropriate moment for a national campaign for the two blocks would have been before the accession agreement was signed."
"When they signed for shutting down the reactors, the Bulgarian authorities agreed that their level of safety was not sufficient. That became part of the accession agreement," Piebalgs said on January 24.
In its statement, BCE expresses its "deep respect for the high appraisal for the safety of blocks 3 and 4 given by the most competent and authoritative nuclear power organisations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the assessment by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and by the nuclear energy goup of the European Commission."
Earlier this month Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev started a national campaign for the reopening of the two blocks.
Works will be reviewed by a group of judges, and winners will receive certificates and prizes.
Seven arrested, including ‘The Squirrel’ who was found in possession of 10 00 euro, Interior Ministry says. Mobile phones, computer equipment and drug paraphernalia seized.
Maximum temperatures across the country will remain mostly below zero.
The first tremor was at about 12.34am, followed by another three minutes later. Their epicentres were located between the towns of Radnevo and Topolovgrad.
There was no risk of blackouts caused by insufficient power supply, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov told Bulgarian National Radio.