site.btaGovernment Designates Operator of Nuclear Installation Under Vienna Convention

The State Enterprise Radioactive Waste has been designated as “an operator of a nuclear installation” in  Bulgaria within the meaning of the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage by a decision of the Council of Ministers adopted on Wednesday.

Under the convention, the operator of a nuclear installation holds exclusive, absolute, and strict liability for nuclear damage caused by a nuclear incident in their installation or involving nuclear material originating there.

The enterprise is a legal entity established on the basis of Article 78, paragraph 1 of the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy Act. Its scope of activity includes the management of radioactive waste, the construction, operation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of facilities for radioactive waste management, their transport outside the site of the respective nuclear facility, as well as the decommissioning of nuclear installations.

The enterprise is in the final phase of commissioning the National Radioactive Waste Repository, for which a certificate of completion was signed in February 2026. The deadline for putting the repository into operation is April 1, 2026.

In order to complete the regulatory procedure and for the repository to receive an operating license, it is necessary for the Council of Ministers, by an official act, to designate the enterprise as an entity which, under international and national law, is the “operator of a nuclear installation.”

At the same time, a condition for issuing an operating license for the National Radioactive Waste Repository is the existence of a financial guarantee covering liability for nuclear damage. In Bulgaria and  in most EU Member States this financial guarantee takes the form of general liability insurance covering nuclear damage.