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From Bulgaria

27.08.2012 16:57

Westinghouse Selected to Carry Out Feasibility Study of Planned New Reactor

The feasibility study will cost a little over EUR 995,000, after a 16% discount was negotiated with Westinghouse, minister Dobrev said

AUTHOR: Lyudmila Zlateva

© Kozloduy NPP

Westinghouse has been awarded a contract for a feasibility study for a new reactor at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The contract was signed today in Sofia by Westinghouse Vice President for Southern Europe Javier Gonzalez and by Lyuben Marinov, CEO of the project company, Kozloduy NPP - New Build PLC in the presence of Bulgarian minister of economy, energy and tourism Delian Dobrev and Westinghouse CEO for Europe Yves Brachet.

Westinghouse was in competition with French nuclear major Areva, which applied independently and in a consortium with Japan’s Mitsubishi, Australia’s Worley Parsons and Bulgaria’s Risk Engineering.

The feasibility study will cost a little over EUR 995,000, after a 16% discount was negotiated with Westinghouse, minister Dobrev said. He added that the Westinghouse will have to tailor the analysis to the project which will use the almost ready reactor built by Russian Atomstroyexport for the abandoned Belene nuclear power station project. The company will have to offer other technologies for the non-nuclear part of the new reactor.

Cheaper than Belene

It will be easier to attract a strategic investor for the planned new reactor in Bulgaria’s currently only nuclear station at Kozloduy than for the scrapped Belene nuclear station, minister Dobrev stated, without elaborating on the supposed investment needed for the new reactor, saying he would be able to talk in numbers after the feasibility study is completed in March 2013.

“After all, the new reactor in Kozloduy will cost less than the Belene project [because] Kozloduy has the required infrastructure which was not present at the Belene site. Our estimates are that the feasibility study, together with the geological and environmental impact studies, would not cost more than BGN 7 m (EUR 3.5 m). This is 10 times cheaper than the same procedure for Belene which amounted to EUR 32 m”, Dobrev said.

He stressed that the creation of a special purpose project company for the new nuclear unit construction should eliminate developments similar to Belene, where “the National Electricity Company (NEK) was hostage to Belene nuclear station”, which drew billions from the budget of NEK.

NEK is the state-owned electricity supplier, which is part of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, created in 2008 and comprising seven other state energy companies .

Two more studies to be announced

Next week it is expected that the economy ministry announces the name of the company selected for the geological study on the new reactor in Kozloduy nuclear station. Another procedure for an environmental impact study is also underway.

Minister Dobrev however declined to disclose in advance the names of companies which submitted their offers.