The new government of Bulgaria will have to appoint the new Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA). The current holder of the position, Sergey Tzotchev ,was appointed by decision of the Cabinet of Simeon Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha in October 2004 after the death of Emil Vapirev. With the completion of his term in 2007 he received a new five-year mandate, which ended back in 2012. So now the new government, probably to be voted from the mandate of the socialist party may appoint a person to this key office
President of the NRA have extremely important powers. According to the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy Act he issues, amends, supplements, renews, suspends and revokes licenses and permits for the safe conduct of the activities prescribed in the normative act, including the operation of a nuclear facility. I.e. the future of NPP Belene largely depends on the head of the agency in question. Earlier this year, Sergei Tzotchev said that the review of the technical design of the second nuclear power plant has been completed and the general opinion is that the documentation can be approved because it contains good design decisions, although there are some comments on the completeness of the information provided. Of course, the regulator could not issue a final permit for the technical design, due to the position of Borisov’s cabinet to stop the construction of the plant. But if its construction is resumed, on the NRA will fall the responsibility to do so.
One should not forget another important project development that is yet to come. We are talking about a possible new block at the site of NPP Kozloduy. This idea was launched by GERB after the freezing of Belene and for the purpose the company Kozloduy – New Facilities has been founded. The competition from August 2012 assigned the implementation of the feasibility study to Westinghouse Electric Spain. A procedure is running for the preliminary selection of candidates to evaluate the risk of building a new nuclear unit at first nuke in Bulgaria, and the deadline for participation was recently extended to May 30. Experts are of the opinion that the licensing of a new playground in the plant will take about 16 months for the provision of all necessary documents, but only the assessment of the environmental impact will take about two years.
All these steps will largely depend on the person who will lead the nuclear regulator. By law, the person must meet several conditions – have a university degree (Master’s degree) in natural or technical sciences, have a permanent address in the country to have length of service of not less than ten years in the field of use of nuclear energy or ionizing radiation, radioactive waste or spent fuel, as well as in the field of state regulation of these activities.
Extremely important is the choice to fall on a really prominent expert, as now nuclear power regulation is left almost on autopilot. NPP Kozloduy is chaired by a specialist in internal combustion engines, the political appointment of GERB – Valentin Nikolov. Indeed caretaker Minister Assen Vassilev made changes to the board of the company. He asked the chairwoman of the board of directors – 28 year old ecologist Marina Armutlieva, and together with her to body was left by Vladimir Uruchev who resigned. They were replaced by Todor Shopov, who also entered into the board of BEH and Valentin Gruev, director of Industrial Relations and Management of Public Participation in the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism. But in truth, none of the three current executives of the plant has the expertise to deal with the very important task that lies ahead – extending the work of the 5th and 6th reactor at the end of their designed lives. In this configuration, the figure of the NRA has become even more important.
The BANKER
