On October 28 2009 the European Commission is expected to propose further financial compensation to Bulgarian for the closure of four reactors of its nuclear power plant in Kozloduy on the Danube, EC sources told Dnevnik.

After it secures the go-ahead from the College of Commissioners, the proposal will be submitted with the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, which should determine whether to allocate further resources and pin down the amount.

Bulgaria, which bowed to pressure from the European Union to shut down two pairs of 440 MW units at Kozloduy NPP, when applying for EU membership, will receive up to 300 million euro that will be available until 2013.

The resources are earmarked to boost energy efficiency and disassemble the old reactors. The precise amount will be set by EU leaders in December but the allocation could be smaller than was requested as old members vie to tap into additional resources from the EU budget.

Over the past 10 years, Bulgaria has received 550 million euro to decommission and dismantle reactors one to four of the nuke facility, showed estimates by the EC requested by Dnevnik.

According to its EU Accession Treaty, Bulgaria is to get 230 million euro between 2007 and 2009 to offset the effect of laying the capacity idle. Contracts for 92 per cent of the resources for 2007 and 2008 have been signed so far.

This year’s 77.5 million euro has not yet been distributed as it has only been a month since it was allocated.

The Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDS) has calculated that contracts worth more than 2.1 billion euro have been inked in 2009 and are awaiting funding from the state budget, the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which administers the fund.