[cdn-nucl-l] Kozloduy wins green award

["Brown, Morgan" <brownmj@aecl.ca>]

From the European Nuclear Society NucNet page

Bulgaria: N-Plant Wins Green Party Award
The Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria - a prime target for
anti-nuclear activists internationally - has received an award for being
environmentally friendly from the country's Green Party. 
Alexander Karakachanov, a Green Party leader and member of the national
parliament, has written to the plant announcing that Kozloduy has been named
winner of the party's newly established annual ecology award. His letter
also congratulates the power station on its 25th anniversary, a milestone
reached last week. 
The award officially recognises the safety upgrades carried out at Kozloduy
in recent years and the plant's role in reducing overall CO2 emissions
through its non-use of fossil fuels. 
On an international level, organisations such as Greenpeace have waged a
long-running campaign, calling for the closure of Kozloduy, which consists
of six Soviet-design VVER pressurised water reactor units. However, the
plant's spokeswoman, Krassimira Pishtuhina, reckons there is nothing unusual
about the plant being honoured by the Greens. "I think it's quite normal
that we have got the award," she said. "We have been operating for 25 years,
and the environmental parameters have not changed around Kozloduy or in the
rest of Bulgaria. We have a technique of production which is quite
environmentally friendly, as we represent a saving in greenhouse gas
emissions." 
The spokeswoman added that a national consensus had emerged regarding the
plant, and that there was no real resistance to it inside Bulgaria itself. 
One of the ways in which the plant marked the 25th anniversary was to
introduce a permanent series of 'open days' for members of the public to
visit the site each Saturday and take guided tours through the plant. 
Source: Kozloduy nuclear power plant