nucleareurope Director General travels to Bulgaria for Bulatom 2026 conference
From 8 to 10 June 2026, nucleareurope Director General Emmanuel Brutin travelled to Bulgaria, in the framework of the Bulgarian Atomic Forum (Bulatom) 2026 conference. As part of his travel, Emmanuel visited the Kozloduy Nuclear, before intervening in the Bulatom conference to highlight the importance of the European nuclear value chain.
The visit to Kozloduy, on 8 June 2026, was the opportunity for Emmanuel to discuss the importance of the power plant in the Bulgarian energy system, with nuclear accounting for around 40% of the country’s power generation.
On 10 June, Emmanuel then intervened in the Bulatom conference, and stressed the importance of the European nuclear value chain. He specifically noted that nuclear is one of the few net-zero value chains almost entirely based in Europe, as highlighted by nucleareurope’s new supply chain interactive tool.
“Nuclear is a vital component of Europe’s energy system, it provides close to a quarter of the continent’s power, and has a strongly anchored value chain contributing to our competitiveness and energy sovereignty” highlighted Emmanuel, adding that as the sector is projected to grow in the coming decades, it will be essential to ensure that Europe retains its competitive advantage by supporting domestic supply chain capacities.
Emmanuel then detailed nuclear investment plans in the EU, noting that installed nuclear capacity in the EU is set to grow from around 100 Gigawatt (GW) today to close to 150GW by 2050. He stressed that all nuclear technologies will be needed, from lifetime extension of existing power plants to large and small new build, and added that an enabling policy framework will be key to support the sector in delivering on those investment plans.
Emmanuel concluded his intervention by giving an overview of recent policy evolutions related to nuclear at the EU level, he welcomed recent developments, such as the publication of a Nuclear Illustrative Programme (PINC) which accurately reflects planned investments, but called for concrete actions to support the sector, such as the ones listed in nucleareurope’s action plan.