If coal miners continue to strike, a crisis in the energy sector may force the re-opening of units 3 and 4, said CEO of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, Ivan Genov.

If Bulgaria fails to compensate the losses from continuous striking in the coal basin Maritsa East with imports, the country could enforce the line clause in the EU accession treaty to resume operations in the power units closed at the end of last year.

Reactors 5 and 6, with a power capacity of 1 000MW each, are the only two reactors currently running at the power facility. The closed units have production capacity of 440MW each, according to IntelliNews.

The re-launch will take four to five to months, and so will fail to resolve short-term problems with power supply deficits, said Genov.

The cross-border power trade is poorly developed and the whole region is experiencing systematic supply gaps. A co-incidence of production failures could lead to power outages in the country.