Delyan Dobrev, Chairman of Bulgaria’s Parliamentary Energy Commission told BTV that South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C), part of Hyundai Corporation, will be invited to submit a binding offer with a price for the design, construction, supply, installation and commissioning of units 7&8 of the Kozloduy NPP. Of the five candidates interested in building the new nuclear facilities, two Chinese and two American companies did not meet the requirements, he said.
Earlier in February, Bulgaria and the US signed a formal agreement to collaborate on the construction of two new units at the Kozloduy NPP (7&8). The document outlines cooperation in nuclear power development and technology exchange. This came after Kozloduy NPP subsidiary, Kozloduy NPP-Newbuild (KZNPP-NM - Kozloduy NPP Novi Mostnosti) announced that five unnamed companies had expressed interest in building Kozloduy 7&8 under an EPC (engineering, procurement & construction) contract. While the units are to have Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, Westinghouse will not take part in the construction but will retain overall control of the project. According to media reports at the time, the five companies were Bechtel, Fluor, Hyundai, China National Nuclear Corporation and EDF. However, Dobrev made no mention of EDF.
Currently, Kozloduy NPP operates two Soviet-built VVER-1000 reactors (units 5&6). Bulgaria was obliged to close four older VVER-440 units as a condition for accession to the European Union, even though the units had undergone significant safety upgrades. According to the schedule, Kozloduy unit 7 should be operational in 2035 followed by unit 8 two years later.
The procedure for requesting interest from a potential main contractor of the project, which will join a consortium with the American Westinghouse, whose AP-1000 technology will build the reactors, ended on 2 February. According to Dobrev, it is unknown why two of the companies – US Bechtel and Fluor – had not applied directly but through their subsidiaries instead, which meant did not meet the technical and financial requirements. Moreover, Fluor’s company did not meet the financial requirements.
Image: Kozloduy nuclear power plant (courtesy of Kozloduy NPP)
