Bulgaria this week held a construction launch ceremony for a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste repository to be built close to the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which sits on the Danube River close to the border with Romania.
The Kozloduy plant has four shuttered reactors on site, which were shut down as part of an agreement to allow the country to be considered for membership in the European Union, which the country joined in 2007. There are two remaining reactors on site, Units 5 and 6, still operating.
The first two pairs of reactors at the plant were closed in 2002 and 2006, respectively. Each of those were VVER-440 Russian-designed and constructed reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association. However, the European Commission did not consider any of those reactors viable for upgrades, prompting the request that they be shut down.
The repository is being financed by an $88 million grant from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Under the auspices of State Enterprise Radioactive Waste, it is to be build as a “near-surface, trench-type facility,” the World Nuclear News reported.
Construction is expected to take four years.