Sun, Jul 05 2009

Reopening Kozloduy blocks 3 and 4 only way to head off energy crisis - BCE

Mon, Jan 28 2008 15:21 CET byRene Beekman 1413 Views

Bulgarian Branch Chamber of Energetics (BCE) issued a media statement on January 28, saying that restarting blocks 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) was "the only way to head off the energy crisis in the region."

According to BCE, an NGO of employers in the energy branch, there was no technical reason to shut down the two blocks of the Kozloduy NPP.

The statement was published a few days after Euro commissioner for energy Andris Piebalgs said there was no chance at to restart blocks 3 and 4 of Kozloduy. Piebalgs qualified the Bulgarian national campaign to restart the two blocks as "politically unfair", saying that "an appropriate moment for a national campaign for the two blocks would have been before the accession agreement was signed."

"When they signed for shutting down the reactors, the Bulgarian authorities agreed that their level of safety was not sufficient. That became part of the accession agreement," Piebalgs said on January 24.

In its statement, BCE expresses its "deep respect for the high appraisal for the safety of blocks 3 and 4 given by the most competent and authoritative nuclear power organisations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the assessment by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and by the nuclear energy goup of the European Commission."

Earlier this month Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev started a national campaign for the reopening of the two blocks.

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