Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant (NPP) Kozloduy has shut down its 1,000 MW Unit 5 on Saturday for planned annual maintenance works, the plant operator said.
The works are expected to be completed in mid-June, the operator said in a press release over the weekend.
During the planned outage, the reactor will be reloaded with fresh nuclear fuel. The planned works are part of a project for extending the operational life of Unit 5. They will be carried out along with measures forincreasing the unit's thermal capacity to 104% which include replacement of the stator of the turbine with a new one and reconstruction of the separators of two steam generators.
Kozloduy's other 1,000 MW unit, Unit 6, operates at full capacity.
Kozloduy NPP remained with two operational units - Units 5 and 6 - after the country closed down four units of 440 MW each to address nuclear safety concerns of the European Union prior to its accession to the bloc. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.
(Seenews.com)
