Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear plant: unions seek aid as low Danube forces fixes
Two union federations warn of delayed wages and strained finances at the plant. Energy Minister Iva Petrova calls the Danube's low water levels historically unprecedented.
Archive image · Photo: Yovko Lambrev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Bulgarian union federations KNSB and Podkrepa have written to Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Finance Minister Galab Donev demanding urgent measures for the finances of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Members report delays in wage payments "in recent months," and applications for early retirement are rising, the unions said.
According to the unions, the plant sells much of its output at about 25 euros per megawatt hour, below cost, and can keep at most 61.37 euros on the free market, with 90% of anything above going to a state system-security fund. Its contribution to that fund was raised from 389 million to 589 million leva, and it pays about 300 million euros a year into decommissioning and radioactive-waste funds. The unions want a higher price cap and a return to a 50% dividend payout to fund extending the plant's life to 2050.
At the Sofia Economic Forum, Energy Minister Iva Petrova called the critically low Danube levels historically unprecedented. Last summer, reactor output had to be cut for the first time in the plant's history. "We have a set of five technical solutions we are working on," Petrova said, adding that implementing them would take about a year.