Westinghouse Electric Company has won a EUR 1 million contract to perform a feasibility study on a potential seventh unit at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.

The work is to be completed by March 2013, and will be carried out in partnership with the customer Kozloduy NPP – New Build PLC, which can call upon its experience with VVER reactors.

The feasibility study will encompass a review of two potential designs: a VVER reactor utilizing equipment already purchased by the customer (for the now abandoned Belene project) and construction of a 1000-1200 MW pressurized water reactor design.

Work will include an evaluation of the site, radioactive waste and spent fuel management, reuse of existing infrastructures and facilities, licensing, local economic aspects, and the profitability of the two reactor designs, Westinghouse said.

The study will cost EUR 999,500 ($1.3 million), according to Bulgarian energy minister Delyan Dobrev, 16% less than originally proposed.

“Westinghouse is pleased to have been chosen in this competitive selection of nuclear vendors,” said Yves Brachet, president, Westinghouse, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The company was in competition with four other parties for the deal: Worley Parsons, Risk Engineering, AREVA alone and in consortium with Mitsubishi.

Contracts for the environmental impact assessment and geological surveys are due to be awarded shortly, according to Dobrev. The total cost all three studies is not expected to exceed EUR 3.5 million ($4.4 million), he said.