August 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria has started the construction of a national facility for disposal of radioactive waste near the country's sole nuclear power plant (NPP) Kozloduy, the energy ministry said on Tuesday.
The first stage of the construction of the radioactive waste disposal facility is financed with a 143 million levs ($88 million/73 million euro) grant provided by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF) through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the ministry said in a statement.
The facility which will have a storage capacity of 138,200 cu m, will be operated for a period of 60 years.
It is expected to be put into exploitation in 2021.
A German-Bulgarian consortium led by NUKEM Technologies will carry out the the first stage of the project.
The nuclear power plant in Kozloduy, on the Danube river, remained with two operational reactors of 1,000 MW each after the country closed down four older 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.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)