Sofia, Bulgaria, Feb. 23, 2024 – Westinghouse Electric Company welcomed representatives from over 50 companies to its Bulgarian Supplier Symposium this week. The event offered a forum to engage with potential suppliers in support of the two AP1000® reactors selected by Bulgaria for the Kozloduy nuclear site.
Rumen Radev, Bulgaria’s Minister of Energy, and Delyan Dobrev, Chairman of the Committee on Energy in the National Assembly attended the event, in addition to Kozloduy leadership and representatives from the U.S. and Canadian Embassies.
Westinghouse was awarded a front-end engineering and design contract with Kozloduy NPP-Newbuild project in June 2023. In October 2023, Westinghouse signed memorandums of understanding with key Bulgarian suppliers for Kozloduy and other European projects, including for the manufacture of instrumentation and controls (I&C) systems, radiation monitoring systems, and various engineering, consulting and construction services.
“Bulgaria could be among the first countries in Europe with the AP1000 reactor, which is the most advanced nuclear technology available. This project is critical to provide our country with a reliable source of clean energy that will not only reduce emissions, but will be an investment in our economy, creating thousands of green jobs across the nuclear supply chain,” said Petyo Ivanov, Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP New Built company. “By working together with Westinghouse, we can deliver the promise of clean, safe and secure nuclear energy.”
“Westinghouse has a long history of working with the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant and the nuclear industry in Bulgaria, including the 10-year agreement signed in 2022 to supply nuclear fuel to one of the existing Kozloduy units,” said Elias Gedeon, Senior Vice President of Westinghouse Energy Systems Commercial Operations. “We are making notable progress on our front-end engineering and design contract for the AP1000 reactors. We look forward to further expanding partnerships with the deeply experienced, local supply base within the country to support this new build opportunity.”
The AP1000 is the only operating Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design and has the smallest footprint per MWe on the market. One AP1000 reactor is operational with another near completion at the Vogtle site in Georgia, while four AP1000 units are currently setting operational performance records in China with four additional reactors under construction, and two more planned. Poland selected the AP1000 reactor for its nuclear energy program; Ukraine has made firm commitments for nine AP1000 units, and the technology is under consideration at multiple other sites in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Header photo caption: From left to right: Ivan Pironkov (Westinghouse), Oscar Prat (Westinghouse), Rumen Radev (Minister of Energy, Bulgaria), Delyan Dobrev (Chairman of the Energy Committee in the Parliament), Kenneth Merten (U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria), Alex Nestor (Chairman of Kozloduy New Built Company), Sean Jones (Westinghouse), and Ivan Mihaylov (CEO of Amcham).
