Bulgaria Hires Advisor To Draft Eco Study for New Kozloduy NPP Unit
Bulgaria hired the Dicon-Acciona Inzh consortium to prepare an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a new unit at the country's sole nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kozloduy, the state-owned project company in charge of the project said.
The EIA, together with an assessment of the project's likely social and economic impact, are required in order to move ahead with the implementation of the investment proposal.
The budget for the EIA study, which should be ready in up to 12 months, is around 2.0 million levs ($1.3 million/1.02 million euro), exclusive of Value Added Tax, Kozloduy NPP-New Capacity said in a press release.
The tender drew a total of seven bids with three of the candidates advancing to the final stage of the procedure.
The signing of the EIA deal completes the tendering process related to the pre-feasibility phase of the project.
The Dicon-Acciona Inzh consortium comprises Bulgaria's Dicon Group and Spain's Acciona Ingenieria.
The Bulgarian government decided earlier this year to add a 1,000 megawatt (MW) reactor at the Kozloduy site instead of building a 2,000 MW nuclear power plant from scratch in Belene.
Kozloduy NPP-New Capacity, set up in May, is fully owned by the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.
Kozloduy operates two reactors of 1,000 MW each after the government closed down four units of 440 MW each to address nuclear safety concerns of the European Union prior to the country's accession to the bloc in 2007.