Bulgaria and Neighbors Lobby for Re-Opening of Nuclear Plant

SOFIA, March 12 – Bulgaria, supported by its energy-hungry neighbors, urged the European Council on Monday to reconsider the closure of two Bulgarian nuclear reactors, citing an article in its accession treaty to the European Union, but EU representatives said no. “Bulgaria wants the enforcement of article 36 [of the accession treaty] – which requires a simple decision by the European Commission [unlike a unanimous decision of all other EU member states for a change in the treaty],” Bulgarian Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov told a news conference.
The article states that a new member state may apply for authorization to the EU executive in order to take protective measures to overcome difficulties in a given sector. Earlier on Monday, Michael Humphreys, head of the representation of the EC in Bulgaria, said that closure of the reactors “cannot be questioned”, since it was a part of Bulgaria’s obligations prior to joining the bloc in January. Ovcharov replied that Bulgaria’s proposition was not to change the treaty, but to enforce the said article. Bulgaria closed down a second pair of Soviet-built reactors of 440 MW each at its Kozloduy nuclear power plant at the end of 2006 under pressure from the European Commission because of safety concerns. The Balkan country decommissioned the first pair of 440-MW reactors at Kozloduy in 2002.
Two Soviet-built nuclear reactors of 1,000 MW each remained operational at Kozloduy after January 1, when Bulgaria joined the EU. Bulgaria covered around 60 percent of the electricity deficit in southeastern Europe last year, but it almost halted exports this year. The closure has already driven Albania and Macedonia and the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo to desperately seek power imports from other sources. Energy ministers of nine southeast European countries on Monday signed a joint declaration calling for “a flexible approach including extending the operational period of units 3 and 4 of Kozloduy NPP.”