Vladimir Urutchev, member of the Group of the European People’s Party of the European Parliament, Bulgaria

– Bulgaria has no alternative to nuclear energy

On Jan 20 the Energy Committee of the National Assembly of Bulgaria voted for restart of the 3rd and 4th units of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant in response to the “gas crisis.” On Jan 19 Minister of Energy of Bulgaria Petar Dimitrov said that the Government had instructed the Ministry to start preparations for the restart of the 4th unit of Kozloduy NPP and was going to ask the European Commission to permit the restart. He said that the preparations would take some 45 days. Member of the Group of the European People’s Party of the European Parliament Vladimir Urutchev, who was the chief engineer of Kozloduy NPP in 2000–2007, has commented on the role and capacities of nuclear power engineering in Bulgaria and the development prospects of nuclear energy in Europe.

Nuclear energy is playing an increasingly big role in the resolution of energy supply problems worldwide. Nuclear power plants are not only a source of ecologically safe energy but are also an instrument for meeting modern global challenges.

First of all, nuclear energy is one of the key contributors to the successful fight against the climate change. Today, nuclear power plants spare the European Union from emitting as much CO2 as all of its 212,000,000 cars do. We cannot ignore such a strong weapon in our fight to save the Earth and more and more countries are showing interest in nuclear energy.

Bulgaria has no alternative to nuclear energy as our country does not have own energy resources to meet the growing energy demand of its quickly developing economy. At the same time, nuclear energy is a guarantee of energy independence for us even though we import nuclear fuel. Nuclear energy helps us to meet our European obligations to reduce our CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020. Bulgaria regards nuclear power engineering as an integral part of its development strategy. That’s why it has started to build Belene NPP – a nuclear power plant with reactors of third generation.

Ecological compatibility and lack of own resources are the key arguments in support of the use of nuclear energy.

For example, the low cost of nuclear energy helps to keep electricity prices low in all EU countries, which certainly has a positive social effect for Bulgaria, where people earn much less than in many other EU states.

On the other hand, 35 years of safe operation of nuclear reactors in Bulgaria have proved the high reliability of nuclear energy. Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant complies with the highest safety standards, which has been cofnirmed by numerous international inspections. That’s why it was a painful decision for Bulgaria to stop the first four reactors of the plant. We still hope that two of them – stopped in the very middle of their lives – will be restarted. By doing this we would not only correct injustice but would also assert the leading role of nuclear energy in preventing the threat of global heating and ensuring stable energy supply in the world.