„No one has officially notified me. Yesterday, the Minister of Energy stated that my replacement was dictated by a vision of a professional approach and transparency“
This was said in an interview for the program „Face to Face“ on bTV by Prof. Georgi Kaschiev.
He also stated that as Chairman of the Board he insisted on limiting unnecessary expenses and public procurement, but did not receive the necessary support. According to him, there are procedures that raise suspicions of unjustified expenses. He gave an example of a public procurement for the production and delivery of 44 spent nuclear fuel containers with an estimated value of 33 million euros.
“The problem with the containers for the next 5-6 years has been solved, but a new procedure for more containers has been activated. In my opinion, it is unnecessary“, said Kaschiev.
He claims that there has been resistance from various institutions to his attempts to change management practices. “In order to fight inflated and manipulated public procurements, one must have support. I did not find such support“, said Prof. Kaschiev.
According to him, the financial situation of the “Kozloduy“ NPP has deteriorated in recent years due to a decline in production, increased costs and a series of management decisions. “Until 2022, production of about 16.5 million megawatt hours was sustainably maintained. Last year it was about 15.3 million megawatt hours. At the same time, the costs of repairs, maintenance and personnel are steadily increasing“, Kaschiev pointed out.
Kaschiev, who is a nuclear physicist, long-time chief physicist of the plant, scientific supervisor during the commissioning of Unit 5 and former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, said that he learned about his dismissal from a publication in the media.
“No one has officially informed me. Yesterday, the Minister of Energy stated that my replacement was dictated by a vision of a professional approach and transparency,“ he said, ironically noting that such an explanation could compete in the category of the most pointless arguments.
He defined the reported profit of 12 million leva as “accountingly adjusted“, indicating that the plant has a bank debt of 50 million leva and uses an overdraft.
According to him, one of the problems is related to the decision to increase the capital of the company “Kozloduy NPP - New capacities“ by contributing land from the plant's territory. “The land was valued at about 3,000 leva per square meter, which led to an assessment of hundreds of millions of leva. Then it turned out that taxes had to be paid to the treasury and the headquarters ended up with a financial deficit,“ he explained.