2024-08-18 10:21:40
- Bulgaria has not decided if and where it will build a repository, it has until 2033.
- Strategy defines Northern Bulgaria as the most suitable place because of the soil conditions
Bulgaria is studying the possibility of sending spent nuclear fuel from the Kozloduy NPP to Finland. This became clear today in the parliament during a hearing of acting energy minister Vladimir Malinov.
He was summoned by MPs to explain if, where and when Bulgaria would build its own repository for high-energy nuclear waste, as there were regional concerns across the country.
Malinov explained that all countries with developed nuclear energy in the EU are working on the design of storage facilities for storing and burying nuclear fuel, but Finland was the most advanced. The other countries with a plan developed so far were Sweden, France and Switzerland. The expectations are that Finland will be ready first, that’s why our interest was directed there.
The development of its own repositories for the storage of waste from nuclear power plants was reached after Russia closed this possibility due to sanctions. In fact, since 2015, Bulgaria has had difficulties in sending spent nuclear fuel there – since then there has been an irregularity in the transportation of this waste. The war in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions against Russia have only aggravated the situation.
“In order to send spent nuclear fuel to another country, it must be decided and allowed by the National Assembly. Then this possibility will be officially included in the Strategy for the development of nuclear fuel, which is being developed in our country”, said the acting Minister of Energy.
However, the fears of the people in our country, at least at the moment, are groundless, he stressed. At the moment, only preliminary studies of the possibilities have been carried out in Bulgaria, and the conclusion was that, in principle, there are suitable geological conditions in Northern Bulgaria – in the marl massifs of the Miesian plate. At the moment, however, no decision has been made to build a repository, much less a specific location has been chosen, he said.
The Strategy stipulates that the repository should be built by 2050, but due to the lack of a decision by the Council of Ministers, the processes have not yet started. The year 2033 is the intermediate term for making such a decision and for preparing a concrete schedule for all stages of the construction. Without such a plan, any proposal to build new nuclear power cannot be recognized as sustainable according to European documents, Malinov explained.
Regardless of all this, our country continues to have an obligation to take back our radioactive waste after its processing in Russia. At the moment, however, the parameters of the waste subject to return, nor the conditions for this, are not known.
We are talking about processed and vitrified waste, which is low-radioactive and is considered the so-called perpetual storage.
Malinov said that the specific volumes and characteristics of this type of nuclear waste after its processing should be determined on the basis of a future methodology for determining the quantities and characteristics agreed between the two countries, i.e. Bulgaria and Russia.
The methodology had to be agreed within 10 years before the physical return of this waste. For their intermediate storage in the medium term, the appropriate storage facility should be built at the Kozloduy NPP site and a sustainable solution should be sought, which would be long-lasting, he emphasized.