Bulgaria opens radioactive waste repository on Romanian border

Bulgaria has officially opened a national repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste at the Radiana site near the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, the country's energy ministry said.

The facility, located at the Radiana site near the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, will store processed radioactive waste from the energy, medical and industrial sectors, as well as material from the decommissioning of older nuclear units. It is situated just over the river from Romania, and dates back to the era of the USSR in the 1970s.

Energy Minister Traycho Traykov said the repository was among the most modern in Europe and would be able to handle waste generated domestically over the next 60 years.

“It is a unique facility of the highest class,” Traykov said, adding that the project represented the culmination of years of work to bring the site into operation.

The near-surface, trench-type repository is designed with multi-barrier protection systems in line with international safety standards set by the International Atomic Energy Agency and European practices. Its purpose is to isolate radioactive material from people and the environment over the long term.

The facility has a total planned capacity of 66 reinforced concrete cells capable of holding nearly 19,000 containers of waste. The first phase includes 22 cells with capacity for 6,336 containers, primarily intended for waste from the shutdown of Kozloduy units 1-4.

The repository is expected to operate for around 60 years, after which it will be closed and monitored for at least 300 years.

Construction of the site began in 2017 following years of geological and environmental studies. The project was assigned to Bulgaria’s State Enterprise Radioactive Waste in 2005.

Funding came largely from the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund, administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with total financing of about €76mn, alongside national co-financing of about €17.4mn.

The project forms part of Bulgaria’s commitments made during its accession to the European Union, which included the closure of four older Soviet-designed reactors at Kozloduy between 2002 and 2006.

Bulgaria currently operates two reactors at Kozloduy with a combined capacity of about 2 gigawatts and is considering plans to expand nuclear capacity, including new large-scale reactors and small modular units.