The EU's strategic autonomy globally is unattainable without an affordable and predictable price of electricity, the president believes.
Bulgaria must be very careful and demand to know what the final price will be for the construction of new nuclear facilities because they are started under certain conditions, but end after 15-20 years under completely different financial parameters. I will work with the Bulgarian government and parliament to have greater clarity and more serious guarantees.
This was stated by the head of state Rumen Radev at the international nuclear conference "Bulgarian Nuclear Energy - national, regional and Global Energy Security" yesterday evening, which is organized annually by the Bulgarian Atomic Forum (BULATOM).
The President pointed out that after many years there is political will for Bulgaria to develop its nuclear energy, but he would like to see a continuation of the process started by the official cabinet with Prime Minister Galab Donev in the fall of 2022. The caretaker government then signed an agreement with Westinghouse for nuclear fuel diversification and decided that Framatom would also supply nuclear fuel to the Kozloduy NPP, which, however, has not yet been implemented.
Bulgaria has the right to demand and choose in order to achieve the best conditions for the fuel of the Kozloduy NPP and to have real diversification, the president pointed out. "If we are talking about competition, which is the basis of the market economy and our European democratic values, there should be competition. And all possibilities, licenses, terms, locations, price, guarantee for nuclear risk, etc., must be put on the table," the head of state emphasized.
The president also noted that he does not claim to be "at the level of the "nuclear physicists" in the Bulgarian parliament, where the most prominent scientists in the field of nuclear energy work, who in just a few hours made decisions on exactly how to develop nuclear energy in Bulgaria and with exactly what technologies'.
Rumen Radev added that the questions remain as to who, how and by what methodology, by what scientific methods and analyses, make the decisions that predetermine the future of Bulgarian energy and how the principle of competition is respected.
The head of state expressed his satisfaction with the Bulgarian team that works at the Kozloduy NPP and develops nuclear energy as a strategic branch of the economy, including Bulgarian technologies. The construction of a new unit of our nuclear power plant opens up opportunities for thousands of new jobs and additional employment after its completion, the president also reminded. The construction of new nuclear facilities also gives a boost to education and science, because cutting-edge technologies are used and contribute to the socio-economic development of the entire region. In this regard, the head of state called for as many activities as possible to be performed by Bulgarian companies during the construction of the new units at the Kozloduy NPP.
"All these processes can be successful only if we have more intensive cooperation with our foreign partners, exchange of experience, technology, knowledge, so that we have high efficiency, with guaranteed quality and as much as possible reducing the nuclear risk and guaranteeing high safety levels," Rumen Radev pointed out. In this regard, the president highlighted the approach followed by other European countries in nuclear energy through the implementation of small modular reactors to achieve energy independence.
According to the head of state, in the near and medium term, until the desired future of almost zero carbon emissions is reached, nuclear energy remains irreplaceable and Bulgaria must continue to develop it. At the same time, the ambitions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 coincide with the trend for a sharp increase in the demand for electrical energy with the transition from fossil fuels to the electrification of all sectors of the economy, transport, industry, construction, and household. It also raises the question of the role, place, tasks, functions and perspective of nuclear power and its potential to achieve energy balance.
The President recalled the European debates a few years ago about the inclusion of nuclear energy in the EU taxonomy when the intentions of transition to a green economy grew into an imperative for countries to abandon base capacities. The head of state highlighted his positions, consistently defended at the meetings of the European Council in 2021, that our country should not be pressured to give up such basic energy capacities before there are developed, implemented, assimilated and accessible technologies for storing renewable energy sources of energy. According to him, finding solutions for the storage of energy from renewable sources is the key to the transition to a green economy, but the construction of RES requires the availability of a lot of land, and in Bulgaria land is an extremely valuable resource and under the Constitution it is clearly determined for what and how to use it. Rumen Radev reminded that the Bulgarian parliament accepted the veto imposed by him on the use of fertile land for the construction of RES, which once again emphasizes the importance of nuclear energy.
We cannot achieve strategic autonomy of the EU without a sustainable, affordable and predictable energy price, Rumen Radev emphasized in his speech and highlighted the large price imbalances in some European countries on a daily basis, which have given up basic energy capacities. The President also pointed out that the EU cannot compete with the other major strategic players in the long term, where electricity and natural gas are several times cheaper and guarantee the stability of their economies because they can predict months and years ahead what the price will be of energy. At the same time, the EU aims to achieve strategic autonomy with the construction of RES capacities, where 98% of the solar panels it imports come from a single country - China.
"As a result of the energy and economic crisis, we are beginning to realize the hard way that, in addition to clean nature, the living standards of European citizens, employment and competitiveness are also important, and we cannot ignore one for the sake of the other," said Rumen Radev. The head of state highlighted the importance of the so-called nuclear alliance in Europe, in which France and Bulgaria took a leading role and with the support of eight other European countries managed to ensure that nuclear energy remains in the EU taxonomy and that investments in it are recognized as sustainable and green. The President also emphasized the importance of the agreement signed in December of this year. in Dubai at the United Nations World Conference on Climate Change, a declaration by 20 countries on 4 continents to triple nuclear power generation by 2050. Today there are around 440 nuclear reactors worldwide, providing approximately 390 gigawatts (GW) of power, while more than 100 other reactors are planned or under construction. Between 2025-2040, however, many existing capacities will reach the end of their planned life cycle and will have to be closed and decommissioned.
"For the first time, nuclear power producers have come together internationally in Dubai to challenge the prejudices surrounding nuclear power, and this is the greatest success - to recognize the role of the peaceful atom for the future of the planet.", said President Rumen Radev. The head of state also emphasized that Bulgaria is proud to have half a century of experience in the safe, stable, reliable operation of nuclear power, and that entirely with its own highly qualified personnel, whose professionalism and expertise should be the basis of their development in the future. | BGNES
