The control room.
THE photographers of the large media group that travelled to the Nuclear Power Plant near Kozlodui on the Holiday of Workers of Energy industry, June 21, were trying to capture a rare picture.
A stork was nestling on top of a big metal column in the middle of the machinery of the pump station that sucks water from the Danube for the cooling of the four active N-reactors.
The stork had just procreated and was spreading its wings over the helpless little creatures in the nest to protect them from the scorching late-June sun.
The presence of the bird spoke louder than figures and analyses of ecology experts. Storks prefer ecologically clean areas.
The chief of the pump station Ognian Kotsev saw the enthusiasm of the photographers and decided to present them with another piece of promotional material.
"Come with me to the dining room, I will show you our pelican."
Seeing some disappointed eyes, that this was a stuffed, not a live bird, he told the story, which was interesting enough to make up for the disappointment.
The workers of the pump station found the pelican about seven to eight years ago, shot with several bullets in the neck. It did not have the chance to survive, but made a good legend. After the bird was stuffed and put on a thick branch in the dining room, it also appeared on the seal of the pump station.
"A sign of clean environment," Kotsev says. "Like the seal of the Finnish N-plant. They put on it a turtle coming out of the sea to lay its eggs. The outlines of their nuclear power station are just behind it. Meaning, that it so clean around there that the turtles prefer it for their kids," he concludes.
Ecology and safety are key issues in the long struggle of the Bulgarian state to keep its first nuclear power station near Kozlodui. That was the motivation of the management to invite journalists to take part in the first fishing contest at one of the artificial channels that leads the cooling water to the reactors with the speed of 48 to 63 cubic meters a second. It was part of a two-day trip, dedicated to the Energy Industry Workers Holiday and provided, apart from the pleasures of fishing, information about the latest ecological measures in the area of NPP, strolls in some of the facilities (with a ban on shooting in the command halls) and answers to any questions that journalists decided to ask formally and informally.
Let us look at the dry facts first
"Kozlodui NPP is an important factor of the sustainable development of Bulgaria. In 2002 only, the electricity amount of 22.2 TWh generated by Kozlodui NPP saved the release to the environment of about: 29 tons of carbon dioxide, 1.3 million tons of sulphur dioxide , 82 tons of nitrogen oxides and 54 000 tons of dust containing natural radioactivity that would have otherwise been released if the electricity had been produced from other fuel," the web site of the station says.
About 2300-2500 samples are analysed each year at the laboratories of the Environment Monitoring Department of the N-plant, says its chief Rousyan Tsibranski. A three-kilometre strip is watched for radiation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A strip of 100 kilometres around the power station is also closely monitored by taking samples from the air, the soil, the vegetation, the Danube, drinking water sources. The gamma-ray radiation is measured regularly. According to Tsibranski the radiation coming from the nuclear plant is about 0.01 per cent of the whole natural radiation. There are types of technogenic radiation that does not necessarily come from nuclear energy production. For example, the radiation of the rather more polluted Sofia is 0.18- 0.20 Bq and much more dangerous than the radiation around Kozlodui - 0.07- 0.15 Bq. Tsibranski says that the greatest part of the artificial radiation man gets from medicine - about 95 per cent.
According to the chairperson of the board of directors Ivan Grizanov, the partners check, run by the World Association of Nuclear Operations (WANO) that has just finished, found 23 positive practices in Kozlodui and is going to recommend them to other N-plants. The check, performed last year by the International Association of Nuclear Energy, established that the safety and the quality of the Kozlodui station is above medium European level, Grizanov said.
Notwithstanding these experts' opinions, the first and second reactors of the NPP were closed down at the end of last year. All 1500 employees were hired by the other four reactors or to work on the conservation of the closed ones. That was part of the commitments Bulgaria had made to the European community about its nuclear energy production. Now there are attempts to prove that two more of all six reactors are not safe and should also be closed. Many people in Bulgaria believe that this EU-pressure on Kozlodui is part of a trade war. Still, the EU recommended one more partners' check which is expected till the end of the year. After that the fate of the third and fourth reactors of the NPP will be finally clear.
At the moment the four active reactors produce about a half of the whole electricity in Bulgaria. If the third and fourth blocks are closed than the production of electricity will not be cost-effective any more. The fifth and the sixth block are very modern. They were built in the late 80s and early 90s but the major investments make the electricity they produce unbearably high-priced. Now the cheap energy coming from the third and fourth blocks keeps the balance. About $2 billion will be asked as compensation if the third and the fourth blocks are closed before their time in respectively 2015 and 2016.
The closing of the third and fourth blocks is not the only recent controversy related to the NPP. Recently the Privatisation Agency (PA) announced that it had chosen the Bulgarian Energy Company (BEC), allegedly connected to controversial businessman Konstantin Dimitrov, a.k.a. Kosio Samokovetsa, to be the buyer for 65 per cent of Atomenergoremont. The state-owned company formed as an independent legal entity just a couple of years ago. Before that it was part of the assets of the Kozlodui N-plant. It was put up for sale immediately after its separation.
"When the privatisation procedure started two years ago, I called the PA and asked them whether there would be any special requirements for the future owner. Because Atomenergoremont is in a way connected to the national security," the energy industry correspondent of Pari daily, Svetoslava Bancheva, told The Sofia Echo.
"They said this was just another state-owned company, nothing special about it and they would sell it off in the same manner as the pig farms they were putting up for sale at the same time. So two years later I just could not help but remind them those words."
Two years later the energy branch has already become the most attractive industry in the country and it attracts all sorts of capitals - clean and not so clean. This was pointed out even in the Austrian press in connection to the deal with Atomenergoremont.
Dnevnik daily broke the scandal and Energy Minister Milko Kovachev opposed the deal. He asked the National Security Service to check the proposed buyer. A war broke between the Energy Ministry and the PA, but in the end the PA won. The BEC will acquire Atomenergoremont, though debates about whether it is right or wrong are still lingering on in the press.
"We do not know the new owners from BEC, they are not from the professional community of Bulgarian energy industry" Grizanov said during the chain of events, dedicated to June 21. "Atomenergoremont is not so unique as it is considered. We can change the company that services our nuclear facilities with company of specialist we know well if we do not come to terms with the new owners," he added. According to him, however, if the new owners keep all the experts that have been working there, there will be no problem at all.
Again it is a question of safety. Which is the main issue for everybody, working for the NPP. It can be seen in the way people pass at least two checkpoints when they enter or exit the area. The pride managers and ordinary workers take in showing the results from checks of the environment, which have been quite favourable up to now.
"I am not frightened to cook the fish I caught at the channel of the pump station for my family," Raina Tosheva, Standart daily correspondent, said. She was one of the participants in the fishing contest for journalists and NPP-workers to celebrate June 21. And one of the greatest achievers, as she caught 16 pieces just for one morning. It turned out that that in the same pump station channel, where the contest was, the chief judge of the contest Peshko Karadjov, head of the Physical Protection Department of the N-plant, set a record. He caught a 80-kilogram sheat-fish, which dragged his boat for 45 minutes before he and his friends took it out from the water. What happened to the fish, I asked, expecting that it had been stuffed and put at some easy to spot place. "I gave it to friends and had a big feast with my family," Karadjov said. If someone who deals in NPP-security cooks fish he has caught near the reactors to his family and friends, things seem OK.
A stork was nestling on top of a big metal column in the middle of the machinery of the pump station that sucks water from the Danube for the cooling of the four active N-reactors.
The stork had just procreated and was spreading its wings over the helpless little creatures in the nest to protect them from the scorching late-June sun.
The presence of the bird spoke louder than figures and analyses of ecology experts. Storks prefer ecologically clean areas.
The chief of the pump station Ognian Kotsev saw the enthusiasm of the photographers and decided to present them with another piece of promotional material.
"Come with me to the dining room, I will show you our pelican."
Seeing some disappointed eyes, that this was a stuffed, not a live bird, he told the story, which was interesting enough to make up for the disappointment.
The workers of the pump station found the pelican about seven to eight years ago, shot with several bullets in the neck. It did not have the chance to survive, but made a good legend. After the bird was stuffed and put on a thick branch in the dining room, it also appeared on the seal of the pump station.
"A sign of clean environment," Kotsev says. "Like the seal of the Finnish N-plant. They put on it a turtle coming out of the sea to lay its eggs. The outlines of their nuclear power station are just behind it. Meaning, that it so clean around there that the turtles prefer it for their kids," he concludes.
Ecology and safety are key issues in the long struggle of the Bulgarian state to keep its first nuclear power station near Kozlodui. That was the motivation of the management to invite journalists to take part in the first fishing contest at one of the artificial channels that leads the cooling water to the reactors with the speed of 48 to 63 cubic meters a second. It was part of a two-day trip, dedicated to the Energy Industry Workers Holiday and provided, apart from the pleasures of fishing, information about the latest ecological measures in the area of NPP, strolls in some of the facilities (with a ban on shooting in the command halls) and answers to any questions that journalists decided to ask formally and informally.
Let us look at the dry facts first
"Kozlodui NPP is an important factor of the sustainable development of Bulgaria. In 2002 only, the electricity amount of 22.2 TWh generated by Kozlodui NPP saved the release to the environment of about: 29 tons of carbon dioxide, 1.3 million tons of sulphur dioxide , 82 tons of nitrogen oxides and 54 000 tons of dust containing natural radioactivity that would have otherwise been released if the electricity had been produced from other fuel," the web site of the station says.
About 2300-2500 samples are analysed each year at the laboratories of the Environment Monitoring Department of the N-plant, says its chief Rousyan Tsibranski. A three-kilometre strip is watched for radiation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A strip of 100 kilometres around the power station is also closely monitored by taking samples from the air, the soil, the vegetation, the Danube, drinking water sources. The gamma-ray radiation is measured regularly. According to Tsibranski the radiation coming from the nuclear plant is about 0.01 per cent of the whole natural radiation. There are types of technogenic radiation that does not necessarily come from nuclear energy production. For example, the radiation of the rather more polluted Sofia is 0.18- 0.20 Bq and much more dangerous than the radiation around Kozlodui - 0.07- 0.15 Bq. Tsibranski says that the greatest part of the artificial radiation man gets from medicine - about 95 per cent.
According to the chairperson of the board of directors Ivan Grizanov, the partners check, run by the World Association of Nuclear Operations (WANO) that has just finished, found 23 positive practices in Kozlodui and is going to recommend them to other N-plants. The check, performed last year by the International Association of Nuclear Energy, established that the safety and the quality of the Kozlodui station is above medium European level, Grizanov said.
Notwithstanding these experts' opinions, the first and second reactors of the NPP were closed down at the end of last year. All 1500 employees were hired by the other four reactors or to work on the conservation of the closed ones. That was part of the commitments Bulgaria had made to the European community about its nuclear energy production. Now there are attempts to prove that two more of all six reactors are not safe and should also be closed. Many people in Bulgaria believe that this EU-pressure on Kozlodui is part of a trade war. Still, the EU recommended one more partners' check which is expected till the end of the year. After that the fate of the third and fourth reactors of the NPP will be finally clear.
At the moment the four active reactors produce about a half of the whole electricity in Bulgaria. If the third and fourth blocks are closed than the production of electricity will not be cost-effective any more. The fifth and the sixth block are very modern. They were built in the late 80s and early 90s but the major investments make the electricity they produce unbearably high-priced. Now the cheap energy coming from the third and fourth blocks keeps the balance. About $2 billion will be asked as compensation if the third and the fourth blocks are closed before their time in respectively 2015 and 2016.
The closing of the third and fourth blocks is not the only recent controversy related to the NPP. Recently the Privatisation Agency (PA) announced that it had chosen the Bulgarian Energy Company (BEC), allegedly connected to controversial businessman Konstantin Dimitrov, a.k.a. Kosio Samokovetsa, to be the buyer for 65 per cent of Atomenergoremont. The state-owned company formed as an independent legal entity just a couple of years ago. Before that it was part of the assets of the Kozlodui N-plant. It was put up for sale immediately after its separation.
"When the privatisation procedure started two years ago, I called the PA and asked them whether there would be any special requirements for the future owner. Because Atomenergoremont is in a way connected to the national security," the energy industry correspondent of Pari daily, Svetoslava Bancheva, told The Sofia Echo.
"They said this was just another state-owned company, nothing special about it and they would sell it off in the same manner as the pig farms they were putting up for sale at the same time. So two years later I just could not help but remind them those words."
Two years later the energy branch has already become the most attractive industry in the country and it attracts all sorts of capitals - clean and not so clean. This was pointed out even in the Austrian press in connection to the deal with Atomenergoremont.
Dnevnik daily broke the scandal and Energy Minister Milko Kovachev opposed the deal. He asked the National Security Service to check the proposed buyer. A war broke between the Energy Ministry and the PA, but in the end the PA won. The BEC will acquire Atomenergoremont, though debates about whether it is right or wrong are still lingering on in the press.
"We do not know the new owners from BEC, they are not from the professional community of Bulgarian energy industry" Grizanov said during the chain of events, dedicated to June 21. "Atomenergoremont is not so unique as it is considered. We can change the company that services our nuclear facilities with company of specialist we know well if we do not come to terms with the new owners," he added. According to him, however, if the new owners keep all the experts that have been working there, there will be no problem at all.
Again it is a question of safety. Which is the main issue for everybody, working for the NPP. It can be seen in the way people pass at least two checkpoints when they enter or exit the area. The pride managers and ordinary workers take in showing the results from checks of the environment, which have been quite favourable up to now.
"I am not frightened to cook the fish I caught at the channel of the pump station for my family," Raina Tosheva, Standart daily correspondent, said. She was one of the participants in the fishing contest for journalists and NPP-workers to celebrate June 21. And one of the greatest achievers, as she caught 16 pieces just for one morning. It turned out that that in the same pump station channel, where the contest was, the chief judge of the contest Peshko Karadjov, head of the Physical Protection Department of the N-plant, set a record. He caught a 80-kilogram sheat-fish, which dragged his boat for 45 minutes before he and his friends took it out from the water. What happened to the fish, I asked, expecting that it had been stuffed and put at some easy to spot place. "I gave it to friends and had a big feast with my family," Karadjov said. If someone who deals in NPP-security cooks fish he has caught near the reactors to his family and friends, things seem OK.
