site.btaWestinghouse Expands Bulgarian AP1000 Supply Chain at Kozloduy with Seven Companies

Westinghouse Electric Company Thursday announced the signing of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with seven Bulgarian suppliers to support the two-unit AP1000 project at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant site, the company said in a press release on Thursday. 

These agreements are a direct result of the second Westinghouse Bulgaria Supplier Symposium, which provided a forum for regional suppliers to learn more about supporting AP1000 projects globally.

The MoUs establish the potential for supplying a variety of products and services including cranes, logistics and transportation, electrical and industrial equipment, instrumentation and control equipment, and piping by Balkansko Echo, Bon Marine, Contragent 35, El Kontrol, ELPROM Heavy Industries, Kozloduy and Zekalabs.

Westinghouse Energy Systems President Dan Lipman said that the company continues to make excellent progress on its Engineering Services Contract to deliver two advanced AP1000 reactors at the Kozloduy site, thanks in large part to the deeply experienced Bulgarian nuclear supply chain. With this supply chain expansion, we look to tap into the expertise of local construction, electrical and logistics suppliers, which will be critical in delivering the project on time and on budget,” he added.

As part of its “buy where we build” philosophy of localization, Westinghouse has already signed MoUs with 30 Bulgarian suppliers to support the project. The Kozloduy project will also provide Bulgarian firms the opportunity to support other AP1000 projects in Europe and globally. Bulgarian companies can find more information about becoming a supplier on the Westinghouse Bulgaria website.

The AP1000 reactor is the only operational advanced Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design and the smallest footprint per MWe on the market. 

Six AP1000 reactors are currently setting operational performance and availability records worldwide, with 12 additional reactors under construction and four more under contract. By the end of the decade, 18 units based on AP1000 technology will be in operation globally. The AP1000 technology has also been selected for nuclear energy programs in Poland and Ukraine and is also under consideration at multiple other sites in Europe, the United Kingdom, India and North America.

On December 20, 2024, Kozloduy NPP and Westinghouse Electric Company signed a contract to prepare the safety analyses required to license Westinghouse fuel for Unit 6, in the presence of Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov and Westinghouse President and CEO Patrick Fragman.

The agreement built on a November 4, 2024 engineering contract under which a Westinghouse–Hyundai consortium will add two AP1000 reactors at Kozloduy’s Site No. 2, a project then-caretaker prime minister Dimitar Glavchev called a top government priority. At the same ceremony Westinghouse’s Elias Gedeon underlined longstanding United States support for Bulgaria’s energy security. Kozloduy’s partnership with Westinghouse began with control-system upgrades, extended to fuel-supply diversification, and now encompasses new-build plans set to strengthen Bulgaria’s role as a regional low-carbon electricity provider.