Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived Monday in Bulgaria to conduct checks on two modernised reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear plant, the plant said in a statement.
The 10-day mission, consisting of seven IAEA experts, was invited to assess whether the plant had fully completed the modernisation of its two operating Soviet-built 1,000-megawatt reactors to bring them in line with EU standards, Kozloduy's press office said.
The plan, which included 212 measures in total, was accomplished during a series of reactor shutdowns for repairwork between 2002 and 2007, it added without providing any further details as to the nature of the checks.
The plant had said in July that it would invite an IAEA mission to check the quality of its fuel after a long-term Kozloduy employee, Georgy Kotev, accused the plant in his web blog and in media inteviews of using dangerous recycled fuel.
Kozloduy's management denied the accusations and said the plant was the target of a campaign to discredit it and ruin the future of nuclear energy in Bulgaria at a time when the country was preparing to start construction on a second 2,000-megawatt facility in Belene, east of Kozloduy.
The Belene plant, to be built by Russia's Atomstroyexport and subcontractors Areva and Siemens, is to restore Bulgaria's former position as a major electricity exporter in the Balkans following the closure of four of Kozloduy's six reactors before Sofia joined the EU in 2007.
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