Negotiations on the equipment for the Belene NPP with Ukraine be extended by 180 days, the Energy Commission of the National Assembly suggests

Deputies from the Energy Commission of the National Assembly decided that the construction site for units 7 and 8 of the Kozloduy NPP should become an object of national importance. The proposal was made by the chairman of the commission, Delyan Dobrev, and comes as an amendment and addition to the Law on the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy.

„At the same time, the people's representatives did not accept either of the two proposals (of BSP and ITN) for a decision regarding the equipment for the Belene NPP. In general, although with differences, the two decisions proposed removing the steam generators from the list of equipment for the Belene NPP, which is being negotiated with the Ukrainian side.

Within the framework of the discussion, the Minister of Energy, Vladimir Malinov, came up with a proposal to extend by 180 days the negotiations with the Ukrainian side for the equipment for the NPP "Belene" for the purpose of sale. As Minister Malinov put it, this is a "pragmatic approach". He also suggested not to use the phrase "freezing negotiations". According to this option, on the morning of August 1, the deputies of the energy committee will prepare a decision, which will be submitted for voting in the plenary hall. The proposal was accepted as good by the chairman of the commission, Delyan Dobrev, who saw an opportunity during this period to "clear up" all the issues that concern the deputies about the Kozloduy NPP, and in particular the problems with the unplanned shutdown of unit 6 of the plant.

During the meeting, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Tsanko Bachiyski, explained that it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of why this so-called "leakage", including the factors for this. According to him, it should be seen why this happens only on the third steam generator and in one section of the pipe bundle. He assured that he had received an assurance from the management of the plant that during the upcoming shutdown for planned maintenance, a program to study the influencing factors would be presented.

Ivan Andreev, who has been the executive director of Kozloduy NPP since the beginning of July, for his part, in response to a question from the chairman of the energy commission, explained that the time to replace a steam generator is between 3 and 6 months, and for a Russian steam generator - Four months. Moreover, from the explanation of the chairman of the NRA and the director of the plant, it became clear that until three years ago such a problem did not exist. Now, according to Ivan Andreev from the plant, they intend to replace the current circulation pump and return the old one during the planned repair. A number of other analyzes are also being prepared.

A large part of the deputies shared the opinion that our country should still have a detailed analysis, based on which it will be decided whether and what part of the equipment to keep.