Kozloduy nuclear plant's unit 6 will not load fuel from US company Westinghouse at its next refuelling, because the licence is not ready yet. Elizabeth Tzvetanova, deputy head of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, told reporters.

The agency got an application in April to licence six nuclear fuel assemblies made in Sweden, and has already looked at the initial paperwork. "We asked for more details on the monitoring programme for the assemblies while they're in use. We've now got that programme and we're going through the documents. We'll probably bring in a consultant for part of this analysis," Tzvetanova said.

The unit shuts down for refuelling in October, but the licence won't be ready by then, so it will keep running on Russian fuel for now.

Unit 5 at the plant already has Westinghouse fuel loaded. The full switch to US fuel there should be finished by spring 2027.

Elizabeth Tzvetanova was speaking at a seminar for journalists on nuclear safety when the Danube's water level runs extremely low.