Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine are tore-sign an updated agreement
on the transit of nuclear fuel for Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear
power plant, the Sofia News Agency (SNA) reported on Friday.
The accord settles the route of fuel transit through Ukrainian
territory, SNA reported.
According to the new agreement concerning Russian and Ukraine
territory, the special loads will be transported via railway, while
those from Ukraine to Bulgaria would be via water route. The
nuclear fuel would be reloaded at the Ukrainian Danube Harbor,
Ismail.
Fresh nuclear fuel deliveries for Bulgaria are guaranteed by the
Russian company, TVEL, until 2020, with an extension of the
contract.
In the contract the Russian company guaranteed, for the first
time, to transport, process and store Kozlodui's spent nuclear fuel
by the end of the exploitation period.
The existing ten-year agreement for fuel transportation through
Ukraine and Moldova will be extended by another ten years, SNA
reported.
The trilateral negotiations have stretched over three years
owing to the difficulty in finding agreement between Ukraine and
Russia.
The nuclear power plant Kozlodui was built in 1969 in Bulgaria.
It is also the biggest nuclear plant on the Balkan Peninsula with a
total capacity of 3.76 million kw. The electricity generated by the
plant is exported to neighboring Romania, Turkey, Greece, Serbia
and Montenegro and Macedonia.
(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2006)
