The state allocates a new 17 million leva for the construction of the first phase of the National Radioactive Waste Repository

The Council of Ministers approved additional expenditures in the amount of 17 million leva under the budget of the Ministry of Energy for 2025 at its meeting today. The funds are intended for the State Enterprise "Radioactive Waste" to finance the construction of phase 1 of the National Radioactive Waste Repository, the government press service reported, quoted by BTA.

The allocated funds will increase the expenditures under the "Policy in the Field of Sustainable and Competitive Energy Development", budget program "Security of Energy Supply and Management of Radioactive Waste and Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities".

The Council of Ministers added that the construction of a National Repository for Radioactive Waste is an obligation of Bulgaria under Directive 2011/70/EURATOM establishing a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. According to Art. 4, paragraph 1 of the Directive, Member States shall establish and maintain national policies for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. Each Member State bears the ultimate responsibility for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste generated in it. The said Directive has been transposed into Bulgarian legislation by the Law on the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy.

BTA recalls that at the end of December 2024, Acting Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov stated that the signing of an agreement between the state enterprise "Radioactive Waste" and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) does not determine the future of the facilities for the storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. He emphasized this during a briefing at the Council of Ministers after the signing of four agreements with the American agency, one of which is with the Radioactive Waste Enterprise.