The British Nuclear Industry Forum (BNIF) sees no reason for the early decommissioning of units 3 and 4 of the Kozlodui Nuclear Power Plant, said BNIF commercial director John Hadden on Friday. The reactors are scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of 2006.

Hadden took part in a news conference at a Bulatom and BNIF seminar held from October 10-11 in Sofia and Kozlodui under the motto "Current state, outlook and future projects for Bulgaria's nuclear energy sector."

The BNIF executive said that from their talks with colleagues from the Bulgarian nuclear plant, they have learned that the engineering solutions that have been developed are sensible and work. The management of the plant and its technical development in the past 10 years are impressive, commented representatives of British Energy.

The end of the operational life of a power plant comes when that is dictated by sound economic or technical reasons, when there is a safety-related problem that is insurmountable or too expensive to fix, said energy experts present at the seminar. If there is a way to fix the problem and if this is a cost-efficient option, there is no reason why the operational life of the plant should not be extended, they added, concluding that there was no reason why the same set of criteria should not be applied to the Kozlodui plant.

The 10 British companies that took part in the forum represent the entire nuclear sector of that country, according to Hadden. The annual turnover of the British nuclear sector is $5 billion. Twenty-five per cent of the electricity in Britain comes from nuclear sources. In Bulgaria, that share is greater, said Hadden, adding they recognize the significance of the Kozlodui Nuclear Power Plant.

Peter Roberts from BNIF said they were interested in supplying fresh nuclear fuel for the larger units of the Kozlodui plant. The company has developed a technology for the supply of fuel suitable for the VVER-440 and VVER-1000 types of reactors. It has been used successfully in Finland and the Czech Republic. He said the procedure to choose a supplier of fuel for the smaller reactors did not allow them enough time to prepare for participation.

Meanwhile, the members of a civic committee for the Kozlodui Nuclear Power Plant said on Saturday that they believed that public opinion might and should play a very important role in the shaping of a national consensus on the future of the Bulgarian nuclear energy industry.

The civic committee visited the plant for a working meeting where they informed the plant management and experts of their mission and ideas for protecting the national nuclear power industry in keeping with national interests. On the committee are prominent Bulgarian scholars and intellectuals, including history professors Georgi Bakalov, Georgi Markov, Stefan Vodenicharov, heart surgeon Alexander Chirkov and author Marko Semov.

Management from the Kozlodui plant declined to comment on the seminar's findings.