Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine are tore-sign an updated agreement on the transit of nuclear fuel for Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant, the Sofia News Agency (SNA) reported on Friday.

The accord settles the route of fuel transit through Ukrainian territory, SNA reported.

According to the new agreement concerning Russian and Ukraine territory, the special loads will be transported via railway, while those from Ukraine to Bulgaria would be via water route. The nuclear fuel would be reloaded at the Ukrainian Danube Harbor, Ismail.

Fresh nuclear fuel deliveries for Bulgaria are guaranteed by the Russian company, TVEL, until 2020, with an extension of the contract.

In the contract the Russian company guaranteed, for the first time, to transport, process and store Kozlodui's spent nuclear fuel by the end of the exploitation period.

The existing ten-year agreement for fuel transportation through Ukraine and Moldova will be extended by another ten years, SNA reported.

The trilateral negotiations have stretched over three years owing to the difficulty in finding agreement between Ukraine and Russia.

The nuclear power plant Kozlodui was built in 1969 in Bulgaria. It is also the biggest nuclear plant on the Balkan Peninsula with a total capacity of 3.76 million kw. The electricity generated by the plant is exported to neighboring Romania, Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2006)