Yavor Kuyumdzhiev: So far we have not continued the life of the blocks without the Russians

NPP "Kozloduy" terminates the contract with Russia for the supply of nuclear fuel. Bulgaria unilaterally terminates the agreement, but we are not threatened with arbitration and the country will not have to pay a penalty.

"That is not the situation in this particular contract. It is subject to renegotiation and is not fixed. There are not even requirements for a certain period of years to supply this fuel", comments energy expert Yavor Kuyumdzhiev in the studio of "Day ON AIR".

However, he noted that with the termination of the contract, Bulgaria may face a number of problems.

"In this way, the Russians have already refused to suspend the guarantee for the use of the blocks for the rest of their lives. We hope to work until 47-49 year V and VI block. That's the bill. We have a chief designer's agreement made at the last upgrade in 17-19 for units V and VI that says they can operate for another 30 years from that point. Another issue is that when the end of the period in which they have a 10-year license approaches, respectively 27-29 years, next year the plant will have to start a procedure for issuing a new license for another ten years. Here comes an interesting and delicate moment - how will we continue the life of these blocs, without the participation of the Russians", the guest told Bulgaria ON AIR.

According to him, this is a difficult task, but not an impossible one. Years ago, when the Ukrainians terminated their contracts with the Russians, they themselves developed a methodology.

"We must turn to the Ukrainians for help. They ended all relations with Russian fuel producers quite a long time ago. They themselves developed a methodology in which they themselves continue the life of the bloc," Kuyumdzhiev pointed out.

The energy expert explained how the procedure for continuing the life of the nuclear unit works - a number of tests and trials are carried out, according to which a report is prepared, which is given to the nuclear regulatory agency and it decides whether the unit can continue to operate. The problem Kuyumdzhiev noted is that we haven't done this so far without the help of the Russians.