Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulatory Agency has issued a fresh non-time-limited licence to operate the used fuel storage facility at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

Tsanko Bachiiski, NRA chairman, right, handed over the new licence to Kozloduy NPP executive director Valentin Nikolov (Image: NRA)

The amended licence follows the amendments introducted in March this year to the country's Law on the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy. Instead of the licence being limited by time - notably for 10 years - it is open-ended but with a condition within the licence to carry out a safety review at least every 10 years.

The Agency said "the results of this review should justify the safe operation of the facility and are a prerequisite for the chairman of the NRA to issue an order for their approval and determine the period for carrying out the next periodic safety review".

The Kozloduy plant is in the northwest of Bulgaria on the Danube River and provides about 34% of the country's electricity. It features two Russian-designed VVER-1000 units currently in operation, which have both been through refurbishment and life extension programmes to enable operation for 60 years.

According to World Nuclear Association's Information Paper on Nuclear Power in Bulgaria, used fuel at Kozloduy is initially stored in a pool at the site which was built in 1990 and upgraded and given a new licence by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency in 2001. A dry used fuel storage facility was built near this at Kozloduy and opened in May 2011 with a capacity of 5200 fuel assemblies in 72 casks for storage for up to 50 years.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News