Kozloduy NPP - New capacities on the verge of signing the engineering contract with Westinghouse and Hyundai, defining the future of units 7 and 8

The engineering contract for the construction of new nuclear units at the Kozloduy NPP will be signed next Monday. The contract will be initialed between Kozloduy NPP - New Powers and a consortium including the American Westinghouse and the South Korean Hyundai Engineering and Construction. This was stated by the Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov during the Korean-Bulgarian Energy Forum, organized by the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria. The negotiations between the companies will end today, and the signing of the contract is a key moment in the construction of new nuclear facilities in our country.

"The contract will enable us within 12 months of its signing to have three very important milestones. First, to have an accurate schedule for the realization of the project, to have a fixed price for the realization of the project. And this will enable the future minister, who will be in 12 months, to submit a report to the National Assembly so that the Bulgarian state can make a final investment decision for the realization of the nuclear project," Minister Malinov explained to journalists.

"This will also give us the opportunity to continue our work with the financing institutions, so that we can structure the financing for the implementation of the project... not the least important is at what price the new facilities will produce nuclear energy and whether it will be at a price that will be profitable and tolerable for the Bulgarian society and for the entire region," Malinov explained.

The subject of the contract to be entered into and it was our battle to convince both Westinghouse and Hyundai that we should have one person that we could deal with from a legal point of view that would be responsible and not work with each of the companies separately. So they will make a commitment to make the conceptual project within the framework of this contract as well. And it will serve as a basis for us to be able, within these 12 months, for the Kozloduy New Powers NPP to apply to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works to issue a construction permit for the 7th unit. Specifically, the conceptual project is only for one block, because the environmental assessment procedures for the construction of the 8th block at the Kozloduy site are still ongoing.

It is expected that within the next one year the government and the National Assembly will have the necessary information on how much the construction of two new nuclear units will cost, at what price and in what period the project can take place. The signing of the agreement on Monday will start that process. Then the negotiations will be held as far as possible to make the final price affordable for the Bulgarian market, it became clear from the minister's words.

Based on the result of these one-year negotiations and discussions of the project, a report will be prepared, which will be proposed to the National Assembly for discussion. Only after that will a final investment decision on the project be made, Minister Malinov explained.

We remind you that the construction of the 7th unit, and subsequently the 8th unit, of the Kozloduy NPP is planned to begin after the completion of the engineering phase, which means in a year at the earliest. The forecasts of the Bulgarian government were that Unit Seven would be ready by 2034, and Hyundai even promised that construction would be completed by 2032. The new nuclear units will be the first in the EU to use Westinghouse's AP 1000 technology.