US nuclear energy company Westinghouse Electric Company signed on Friday (12 April) memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with 17 Bulgarian suppliers to support the upcoming AP1000® projects at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in northern Bulgaria and other projects throughout the region.
The signed MOUs outline the potential for manufacturing of key components, including large structural modules, cranes, heat exchangers and pressure vessels, as well as providing various engineering, transportation, consulting and construction services.
“Ensuring high localisation of work on the AP1000 project at Kozloduy remains a crucial objective,” said Petyo Ivanov, Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP-New Built Company. “We celebrate today’s announcement and these impressive local suppliers, whose partnerships represent another step toward bringing additional advanced, nuclear technology online in Bulgaria and emphasise the economic impact that the project will have for our country and its people. We expect these Bulgarian companies to become a vital part of the Westinghouse worldwide supply chain, more specifically for all their European new built projects.”
Westinghouse was awarded a front-end engineering and design contract with Kozloduy NPP-New Build project for its AP1000 technology in June 2023. In October 2023, Westinghouse signed MOUs with five other Bulgarian suppliers for Kozloduy and other European projects, including for the manufacture of instrumentation and controls (I&C) systems, radiation monitoring systems and various services.
“Westinghouse has a robust supply chain network across the world, and we are pleased to further expand that with additional, experienced and local Bulgarian suppliers to support the successful delivery of two AP1000 reactors at the Kozloduy site,” said David Durham, President of Westinghouse Energy Systems. “Growth of our local and qualified supplier network in addition to the critical progress we are making on our front-end engineering and design contract for this project are important steps that help us to pave the way to bring a clean energy future to Bulgaria for generations to come.”
The AP1000 reactor has been selected for the nuclear energy programmes in Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria, and is also under consideration at multiple other sites in Central and Eastern Europe, Westinghouse noted.