US company Westinghouse Electric Co has won the contract to design a low and intermediate waste repository at Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.

Westinghouse will work on the facility with Spanish waste management firm ENRESA and German waste technology company DBE.

Kozloduy is Bulgaria’s only nuclear plant and provides more than a third of the country’s total annual electricity.

Westinghouse says its AP1000 reactor is close to being certified by US nuclear regulators. Contracts for 10 AP1000 plants have been signed and the design is being considered for new reactors in the UK, along with Areva’s EPR.