Bulgaria sacks head of nuclear watchdog

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Bulgaria sacks head of nuclear watchdog

  

SOFIA, March 1 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's government said on 

Thursday it had sacked Georgi Kaschiev, the head of the country's 

nuclear watchdog for impeding the operations of the Kozloduy 

nuclear power plant. 



Other reasons included interference in the work of the Bulgarian 

Atomic Energy Committee's (BAEC) inspection for safe usage of 

atomic energy, the government said in a statement. 



The deputy chairman of BAEC Robert Popits was appointed to 

replace Kaschiev. 



In September, environment minister Evdokia Maneva demanded 

Kaschiev's resignation over what she called wrong information of 

increased radiation after an incident at a 440-megawatt reactor at 

Kozloduy. 



Maneva said the national system, monitoring the territory of the 

whole country and the plant's territory, had not shown increased 

radiation. 



Kaschiev stuck to his statement and refused to resign. 



In an interview with a local newspaper Kaschiev said after the 

incident that radiation near the reactor was up 70-80 times above 

the normal level and two workers had been affected. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

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Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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