IAEA Completed SALTO Review Mission in Bulgaria

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts recently completed a review of long term operational safety at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Bulgaria.

The SALTO (Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation) review mission was requested by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (BNRA).

A SALTO peer review is a comprehensive safety review addressing strategy and key elements for the safe long term operation of nuclear power plants and complementing OSART missions, which are designed as a review of programmes and activities essential to operational safety.

The 9-member SALTO team focused on aspects essential to safe Long Term Operation (LTO).

The operation licenses of the two currently operating units have been extended until 2027 and 2029, respectively.

The team comprised experts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates, and three IAEA staff members. It identified good practices that will be shared with the nuclear industry globally, including:

The plant implements comprehensive annual visual inspections of civil structures to identify ageing effects at a very early stage.
The plant cooperates with technical universities and high schools to support future staffing needs for the long term operation period.
The plant uses comprehensive information systems to monitor and evaluate the risk of loss of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is non-recorded, non-formalized knowledge, for example, experiences and insights by long-standing plant workers. This strategy ensures the preservation of this important resource for LTO.