Bulgaria Seeks Restart of Old Nuclear Reactors

Jan 23, 2009

The Associated Press
Bulgaria's parliament has approved plans to seek European Union
permission to relaunch two old nuclear reactors mothballed when it
joined the EU two years ago.
Lawmakers voted 140-48 Friday to invoke an accession treaty
clause allowing the reactors to be restarted in an energy crisis.
Twenty- three deputies abstained.

The two aging 440-megawatt reactors at the Kozlodui plant were
shut down in 2007. The plant on the Danube River currently has two
1000- megawatt units of the Russian VVER type in operation.

The government says Bulgarian businesses lost euro100 million
($129 million) when Russian natural gas supplies were suspended for nearly
two weeks because of a dispute with its neighbor Ukraine.