Management of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) supports the idea of the construction of a new reactor at the plant.

Kiril Nikolov, deputy executive director of the plant, said that the construction of a new reactor would be less expensive than the construction of a new plant. The main advantage was the existing internal infrastructure at Kozloduy.

Kozloduy executive director Ivan Genov said that a possible construction of a seventh reactor of Kozloduy or the restarting of the units 3 and 4 of the plant were not an alternative to the Belene NPP project.

“The project for the seventh unit is not exotic and preliminary studies have been done,” Genov said as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

Genov said that the Kozloduy management supported the construction of the Belene NPP. Bulgaria and the region needed a large amount of energy and each additional energy resource would make Bulgaria a bigger player in the energy market, he said.

Some 60 or 70 people from the Kozloduy staff would be trained to manage the new reactors of Belene, Genov said.

A restart of units 3 and 4 could help the execution of the Belene project and the possible construction of unit 7 of Kozloduy. “We have to unite the public opinion in Bulgaria on the need of the restart,” Genov said. Only the public opinion and pressure could be arguments enough for the Cabinet to discuss the matter with EU partners.

According to Genov, Bulgaria was in a "unique situation". He said Bulgaria did not have the necessary resources to meet the increasing energy needs of the country and the region, at the same time the European Commission had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 37 per cent. “If we do not use these arguments, we will witness the destruction of Bulgaria's energy sector,” he said.