Kozloduy NPP – new capacities

Status

In March 2012 the Council of Ministers (CM) of Republic of Bulgaria assigned the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism to submit a proposal for the building of a new nuclear build on Kozloduy NPP’s site (CMD No. 250/29.03.2012).

On 11 April 2012 the Council of Ministers adopted a decision in principle for undertaking actions for building a new nuclear build in Kozloduy NPP. The decision requires the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism to submit a report to CM on taking substantial decision for building a nuclear power plant. One of the prerequisites for taking such a decision by CM is the presence and entry into force of a decision for environmental impact assessment (EIA) issued by the competent authorities.

In the beginning of May 2012 a project company “Kozloduy NPP – new builds” Plc. is established with the main purpose of designing, licensing, building and commissioning of a new nuclear build of latest generation in the vicinity of Kozloduy NPP.

On 13 December 2012, “Kozloduy NPP – new builds” Plc. submitted in BNRA an application for issuing a permit for determining the location (site selection) of the new nuclear facility – a nuclear power plant.

BNRA performed review and assessment of the application and the documents applied to it for determining their compliance with the regulatory requirements, international safety standards and the good practices established. On the base of the results from this review, on 26 August 2013, the Chairman of BNRA issued a site selection permit.

In June 2015, after performing all necessary research, “Kozloduy NPP – new builds” Plc. submitted in BNRA an application for issuing an order for approval of the site selected. BNRA performed review and assessment of the documents submitted taking into account the results of the external independent assessment performed on the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) submitted.

In July 2017, BNRA finalized the process on review and assessment of the documents submitted with the application, during which no incompliances are found to obstruct the order’s issuance. Due to appealing against the adopted EIA Decision before the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Code, BNRA terminated the procedure on issuing the site approval order until the final court ruling. The three-member panel of SAC revoked the adopted EIA decision. The presence of EIA decision at the time of starting the reviewing procedure is a prerequisite for issuing such an order.

With a decision adopted in 2018, a five-member panel of SAC revoked the initial decision of its three-member panel for revocation of the EIA Decision and respectively renounced the appeals against it, as with this the EIA Decision entered into force.

In relation to this, in April 2019 “Kozloduy NPP – new builds” Plc. made a request for renewing the licensing process and for issuing an order for site selection approval. BNRA renewed the licensing process and on 21 February 2020 the Chairman of BNRA issued an order for site selection approval for placing a nuclear facility – a nuclear power plant.