Bulgaria complains of nuclear ‘double standards’

Date: 25/04/02

BULGARIA'S chief negotiator with the EU claims the European Commission is putting undue pressure on her country to close two contentious nuclear reactors by 2006.

Deputy Foreign Minister Meglena Kuneva accused the executive of 'double standards', saying it had treated Bulgaria differently from Lithuania. Vilnius has been given permission, she claimed, to keep a reactor at its Ignalina complex on stream until the end of this decade, while Sofia is being told it must close two reactors at Kozloduy by the end of 2002 and a further two within the following four years.

The Commission 'really needs to explain what is the logic' of its policy, Kuneva told members of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (23 April).

'This makes us feel uncomfortable and that we are suffering from double standards.'

Kuneva described the Ignalina reactor as the 'worst type' of nuclear technology. Belonging to the RBMK range, it is similar to the one which exploded at Chernobyl in April 1986 - the worst nuclear accident in history.

By contrast, the four Kozloduy plants belong to the VVER range. She accepted that the first two units are 'outdated' but said that units three and four are more modern and 'could be improved at a reasonable cost'.

But the Commission official leading the institution's talks with Bulgaria said it had told the country it viewed all four of the reactors as risky about ten years ago. Morten Jung-Olsen said: 'We do not consider we are in an unjustified way putting pressure on Bulgaria by insisting that units three and four be closed by 2006.' He added that the Commission would be willing to help meet the costs of decommissioning.

Jung-Olsen also said Bulgaria will have to examine how it can curb its 'extreme waste' of energy. It is one of the most energy-intensive countries in Europe, he added, using three times as much power as Hungary and eight times as much as Germany.

Brussels' demands that most of Kozloduy's reactors be shut down have encountered stiff opposition in Bulgaria, with about half-a-million people signing a petition for a referendum on the plants' future.

A 1995 study by the US Department of Energy found Kozloduy, Chernobyl, Ignalina and Russia's Kola complex to be the most dangerous nuclear plants in central and Eastern Europe.

Bulgaria's chief negotiator with the EU claims the European Commission is putting undue pressure on the country to close two contentious nuclear reactors by 2006.