Sofia, April 16 (IANS/EFE) One of the reactors at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant was shut down due to an outage, but there is no danger of a radioactive leak, plant managers said Monday.
“The case is not related in any way to the country’s nuclear safety and no changes have been detected in the radiation levels in the area around the plant,” plant management said in a statement.
A hydrogen leak was detected in one of the components of the plant’s refrigeration system a few minutes before midnight.
Plant managers decided to reduce the operating level of the reactor to 2 percent of capacity and disconnect it from the Balkan country’s grid to prevent a fire.
There was no need to implement the emergency plan at the plant, whose other reactor continues operating at 81 percent of capacity, management said.
The affected reactor was scheduled to be taken offline for maintenance April 22, the Standart newspaper reported Monday.
The Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which was built in the 1970s with Soviet technology, is Bulgaria’s only atomic energy facility.
The complex initially had six reactors, but four of the nuclear units were shut down because of safety concerns and as a condition for Bulgaria’s entry into the European Union.
The two operating reactors, which have 1,000 MW of generating capacity each, provide 34 percent of Bulgaria’s electricity.
–IANS/EFE
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