In pursuance of Bulgaria’s commitments undertaken in relation to the country’s accession to the European Union, operation of Units 1 and 2 ceased at the end of 2002, and of Units 3 and 4 – at the end of 2006.

 
After removal of the spent nuclear fuel from the reactor basins, with the respective decisions of the Council of Ministers, the units were declared as facilities for radioactive waste (RAW) management and were transferred to State Enterprise for Radioactive Waste (SE RAW) for implementation of the decommissioning activities.

Respectively, in 2014 and in 2016, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) issued licenses to SE RAW for decommissioning of Units 1 and 2 and for decommissioning of Units 3 and 4. 

In parallel to the operation and decommissioning of the existing nuclear units, the country implements all necessary activities for construction of the necessary facilities for storage of the spent fuel as well as for treatment, conditioning, and storage of the radwaste generated from the operation and decommissioning activities. 

The two storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel from WWER reactors at the Kozloduy NPP site include wet storage and dry storage and their operator is Kozloduy NPP. The spent nuclear fuel facility for wet storage was commissioned in 1990. Later, in 2016, the NRA issued a license for operation of the dry storage facility. 

Currently, the facilities for treatment, conditioning and temporary storage of RAW generated by the operation and decommissioning activities are also located on the site of Kozloduy NPP, but their operator is the SE RAW.

A project for the construction of a national disposal facility for RAW is underway. This facility is intended for disposal of conditioned, short-lived, low and intermediate level waste from the nuclear facilities and nuclear applications. The Radiana site, selected for that purpose, is located in the vicinity of the Kozloduy NPP site.