National campaign to restart units 3 and 4 of Kozloduy NPP launched

19:06 Mon 21 Jan 2008 - Spasena Baramova

On January 21 a national campaign to support the restart of units 3 and 4 od the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) started. Politicians, experts and journalists supported the idea that the restart of the two units could be benificial for Bulgaria and the region, Focus news agency said.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said there was the possibility for Bulgaria to ask the European Commission (EC) to be allowed to restart of the two units if a situation of crisis occurred, but only as a temporary measure. Since there was no electric power shortage in Bulgaria, however, this option was out of the question at the moment, he said.

Stanishev said the issue of the restart of the two units was a difficult topic, since it required not only finding allies, but to overcome the opinion of powerful opponents as well.

Stanishev said that the EU aimed for 20 per cent of the energy to be produced by renewable energy sources by 2020. “Bulgaria will naturally fulfill its obligations, but this is not sufficient to meet the growing electric power needs,” Stanishev said.

After a presentation of the campaign, Stanishev told journalists that Bulgaria could not unilaterally reopen Kozloduy NPP units 3 and 4 because it would be sanctioned, Focus news agency said.

He added that first it was necessary to generate enough political support from the countries in the region.

Bulgaria was able to satisfy its internal needs, but as a result of stopping units 3 and 4, it drastically reduced export to its neighbouring countries. This had a severe effect on the stability, economic development and social security of the Western Balkans countries. Therefore in the past several months Bulgarian has been working on forming a common position to be presented to the EC, Stanishev said.

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said that Bulgaria had the support of the countries from the region.

Former Economy and Energy Minister and current chairman of the parliamentary budget committee Roumen Ovcharov said it was not worth it to talk about restarting Kozloduy NPP units 3 and 4 for a few years, but that Bulgaria should have request the lifespan of the reactors to be prolonged by 20 years.

Comments

Comments by Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace - 12:16 22 Jan 2008
	Why are those behind this campaign so obsessed? Just for good order - the power station on the picture is Kozloduy block 5. The blocks 3 and 4 are in a smaller hall that looks a lot less impressive. There is no reason to restart these dangerous blocks. The reasons for electricity problems in the region (which, by the way, are strongly exaggerated in the Bulgarian press!) stem from bad grid management, lack of investment in own infrastructure and so on. Not from the already over a decade known closure of K3,4. And if 20% renewables will not do the job - why not stimulate the development of more...? And what about efficiency in this country that wastes 5 times more energy per produced product than the EU15? Stanishev and Dimitrov belong to the same generation of energy dinosaurs as Ovcharov... but bluffing and agitprop speak will not change the difference on the ground. It is time these men get out of the way of real development of Bulgaria.