Slip away......

In historic shift, Bulgaria seeks US help to escape Russia’s nuclear grasp

Bulgaria is stepping away from Russian nuclear fuel — a solid source of Kremlin revenue even as Europe slashes oil and gas buys.

BY GABRIEL GAVIN

Russia is losing control over Bulgaria's power grid to the last country it wants to see in Europe's lucrative energy market: the U.S.

Bulgaria, which built its only nuclear power station with Soviet Union support almost 60 years ago, is now waiting on new American-developed fuel rods that it hopes will make it among the first former Warsaw Pact countries to end its decades-long dependency on Russia.

In a statement last week, Tsanko Bachiiski, the chairman of Bulgaria’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency, said the fuel, made by U.S. firm Westinghouse, is set to be shipped from Sweden in the coming month and could be loaded into unit five of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Station as early as May.

The move represents a symbolic step for Bulgaria, which has long maintained close links to Russia politically and economically. It could also mean a loss of revenue for Moscow, which has relied in part on its multi-billion dollar trade in nuclear fuel to finance two-plus years of war in Ukraine.

"This a major change of policy — for decades Bulgaria was locked in long-term contracts for the import of Russian nuclear fuel," said Martin Vladimirov, director of the energy and climate program at the Center for the Study of Democracy.

Bulgaria also has "pro-Russian oligarchic networks" that spent years arguing the country's nuclear plans could only operate on Russian fuel, Vladimirov added.

Those warnings, Vladimirov said, "have been shown to be overblown." Bulgarian regulators say they don’t anticipate major issues switching from Russian to American nuclear cartridges. Still, the step is just the first in a series of moves that would break Moscow's hold over Bulgaria's energy security.

Hard to quit

Bulgaria isn’t alone in its reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland have all maintained Russian nuclear fuel imports since the start of the war in Ukraine, even amid efforts to divest from Moscow’s oil and gas.

According to a new analysis by think tank Bellona, EU countries effectively doubled their purchases of Russian nuclear fuel last year, paying a total of €686 million, compared to €280 million the year before. A fleet of 19 Soviet-designed water reactors, known by the Russian acronym VVER, constructed across Central and Eastern Europe over the past century, drove the demand.

But Westinghouse, the U.S. firm, will soon help fuel Bulgaria’s VVER power plant at Kozloduy — a watershed moment in U.S. efforts to meet Europe’s nuclear power demands. On top of that, Westinghouse is also working in Bulgaria to build two new reactors at a cost of around $14 billion. While the company declined to provide a comment, Tarik Choho, the president of its nuclear fuel, said in December that it is "proud to support Bulgaria on its path to ensure diversification and energy security."

American firms are separately working back home to reopen uranium mines previously shuttered amid declining demand, eyeing a resurgence in nuclear opportunities. The markets have responded, with uranium futures quadrupling over the past four years.

The European exception

The EU does have one major outlier when it comes to Russian nuclear energy: Hungary.

While its neighbors race to sever ties with Russia, Hungary is actively deepening its dependency on Moscow. Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom is working to expand Hungary's Paks II nuclear power station, with construction due to begin in 2025. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has repeatedly defied Western pressure and maintained friendly relations with the Kremlin, has vowed to veto any sanctions on Russia’s civilian nuclear sector.

In November, Ukraine’s deputy energy minister, Farid Safarov, told POLITICO that Budapest’s approach undermined Europe's security.

"Russian imperialistic desire will likely spread out of the limits of Ukraine and therefore Hungary can potentially be the next victim of Russian aggression," he said.

Scrutiny over Russia’s role in the nuclear power industry has only grown alongside concerns over the occupation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest.

Russian troops have held the site for close to two years, effectively keeping its staff as prisoners and stationing military hardware there as fighting rages nearby. The International Atomic Energy Agency has consistently warned of disaster if the situation deteriorates.