MSG198G/01E ENERGY-EASTERN EUROPE: Westinghouse to Overhaul Soviet Reactors

PRAGUE, Nov 11 (IPS) - The U.S. company Westinghouse reinforced its position in Eastern Europe's post-communist markets with a contract to overhaul Soviet-built nuclear reactors in Bulgaria.

The agreement includes a plan to repair two of the six reactors in the Kozloduy nuclear centre near the border with Rumania. The reactors are classified as insecure, and considered by experts to be "veritable time bombs."

Despite the dangers revealed by a European Union commission in Kozloduy, the centre cannot be shut down because Bulgaria relies on the reactor for 50 percent of its national electricity.

A solution proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency is being studied, whereby the two oldest reactors would be abandoned, the security systems of two others reinforced and two of the most modern 1,000 megawatt generators renovated.

Bulgarian economist George Smatrakalev told IPS that the 700,000 dollar project would be funded in equal parts by Westinghouse and the U.S. Trade Department Development Agency.

He warned that this type of contract is dangerous in a nation only five years into post-communist reforms, as the country's economic strategy is totally defenceless. "We don't know whether to laugh or cry...we are entirely in their hands," he said.

Westinghouse moved its offices from Frankfurt to Varsovia in order to keep a closer eye on business in Eastern Europe, where it is already working on a 400,000 dollar Czech contract to modernise Soviet WWER reactors in the Temelin nuclear centre.

After obtaining the Czech contract, the U.S. company was in a better position to repeat the experience in other countries with Soviet technology.

According to a study by the German Siemens company, making the 61 East European nuclear centres acceptably secure would require "resources beyond the reach of the transition governments."

Even the leading designer of Russian generators, Yevgueni Adamov, acknowledged deficiencies in the security of the Soviet reactors in the magazine "Central European Business."

Of events like the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Adamov said, "the concept of security has changed over time," adding that the similar Saint Petersburg reactor is being modernised.

Design is not the only problem. Adamov said that in the Saint Petersburg plant, "only three inspectors are left. The other three left because they were paid less than the cleaning staff."

Bulgaria's news agency reported that Westinghouse will work with the national Energoremont-Belene and Emone Kozloduoy firms, while two Bulgarian engineers are working in the U.S. state of Pensylvania on projects to modernise Soviet reactors using Western technology.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service