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

Mon, Jan 21 2008 19:06 CET bySpasena Baramova 297 Views
National campaign to restart units 3 and 4 of Kozloduy NPP launched

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.

 

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