The decommissioning of the first four reactors of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) will cost the nuke facility EUR 1.117 billion (USD 1.6bn), Vladimir Lozanov, analyst at local engineering company EnPro Consult, said.
EnPro Consult was hired by the plant to serve as subcontractor of the consortium that is in charge of the procedure.
The figure is based on a report issued in 2006, he said.
The proposed amount will be sufficient to take the reactors out of operation, clean the site to safe standards and restore the field, as well as keep the existing buildings and infrastructure.
"We can not demolish the buildings and the infrastructure because that way communications will be affected as the fifth and the sixth units are still operating," Lozanov added.
The decommissioning will be financed by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF), from which allocations from the European Union will be used until 2013, and the Fund for Decommissioning, which is financed by the plant itself.
The two funds have so far accumulated a combined EUR 500 million, a source at the nuke plant said. The sum, however, is not sufficient for the reactors' decommissioning, which has made Bulgaria's Economy Ministry request additional funds for KIDSF, which could be used after 2013. (Source: Dnevnik)