Greening the Grid in the Midst of War: Nuclear Development and Doubt in Bulgaria

• In Event: Environmental Impacts of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Postsocialist and newly accessed European Union countries, like Bulgaria, are constantly negotiating their geopolitical allegiances through the power grid: until recently, to rely on nuclear power meant depending on Soviet-built and Russian-maintained infrastructures. But, to look beyond nuclear often entails much-debated non-renewable energy sources like shale gas, coal, or Russian gas exports. When Russia cut the supply of gas to Bulgaria in retaliation for sanctions stemming from the invasion of Ukraine, it created new momentum for Bulgaria to find alternative energy sources. While these geopolitical machinations shape politics at one level, the everyday experiences of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant and debates about the never-completed Belene Nuclear Power Plant on the nearby banks of the Danube River are quite different from an on-the-ground perspective. This paper addresses what it entails to live through an ongoing quest for green energy “independence” in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Author

• Elana Resnick, UC Santa Barbara