Sofia, Bulgaria, October 23, 2024 – Westinghouse Electric Company today announced it signed an extension to the current Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract with Bulgaria’s Kozloduy NPP-Newbuild for two AP1000® reactors. This extension builds on the progress being made on the Kozloduy expansion project, as well as the support Westinghouse is providing for nuclear fuel diversification and operations at Kozloduy.
Westinghouse was awarded the FEED contract in June 2023 to assess the initial readiness of Bulgarian industry and the existing infrastructure at the Kozloduy site to support the construction of two AP1000 units. Once completed, the next step in the Kozloduy project is the Engineering Services Contract, which will kick off the design, licensing, training, project management, and site planning process ahead of the subsequent construction contract.
“Westinghouse is committed to the Kozloduy project and to further strengthening and leveraging Bulgaria’s supply chain to support this critical project for the Balkans and others across Europe,” said Dan Lipman, President of Westinghouse Energy Systems. “We appreciate the close collaboration with Kozloduy NPP-Newbuild and look forward to taking the next important steps to Bulgaria’s energy security.”
Earlier this year, Westinghouse supported the diversification of Bulgaria’s nuclear fuel supply by delivering and reloading the first VVER-1000 fuel assemblies at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) under a 10-year supply contract. The VVER-1000 fuel was successfully loaded into KNPP Unit 5.
The AP1000 reactor is the only operating Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design and the smallest footprint per MWe on the market. In China, there are four AP1000 reactors currently setting operational performance and availability records with eight additional reactors under construction and four more under contract. In addition, there are two operating AP1000 units at the Vogtle site in Georgia. The AP1000 technology has been selected for nuclear energy programs in Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria, and is also under consideration at multiple other sites in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, India and North America. There will be 18 units based on AP1000 technology in operation globally by the end of the decade.