October 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's nuclear regulator granted a ten-year extension of the operational licence of the 1,000-megawatt Unit 6 of the country's sole nuclear power plant (NPP) Kozloduy, he country's energy ministry said on Tuesday.
In 2017, the nuclear regulator extended by ten years the operational licence of the plant's other operational unit, Unit 5.
The total investment in the extension of the lifespan of the two units amounts to 292 million levs ($162.7 million/149.3 million euro), as the funds were provided by the NPP operator, energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova said, as quoted in a statement by the ministry.
NPP Kozloduy remained with two operational units of 1,000 MW each, Units 5 and 6, after Bulgaria closed down four older units of 440 MW each to address the nuclear safety concerns of the European Union prior to the country's accession to the bloc in 2007.
NPP Kozloduy, which generates 34% of the county's power output, has generated a net profit of 270 million levs in the first eight months of 2019, Petkova also said.
NPP Kozloduy posted a record-high profit of some 167 million levs in 2018, she recalled.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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