Bulgarian President: No Time to Lose with Belene NPP

Business » ENERGY | June 9, 2010, Wednesday // 14:20
Bulgaria: Bulgarian President: No Time to Lose with Belene NPP Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov demands faster construction of the "Belene" NPP project. Photo by BGNES.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov called on the government to proceed faster with the construction of the second nuclear power plant “Belene”, which has been stalled over lack of funding.

“The Belene plant is at a very good stage, project- and technology-wise,” the Bulgarian President said at the conference, organized by the Bulgarian Atomic Forum (Bulatom).

He pointed out that the project has been assessed by international experts as a modern technological solution with the highest indicators for nuclear safety in the world so far.

“I do not see any reason for opposition between the Belene and the Kozloduy plants in the long run. Both projects are in very different development stages,” Parvanov said.

He expressed his concern over the slow down in the “Belene” project because the high interest in the nuclear technologies is raising the prices of new nuclear plants.

The president gave an example with the price per unit of nuclear power in an analogical project in Turkey, which is now 2,5 times higher.

Bulgaria suspended the construction of its second nuclear power plant until it finds a new investor and funds to complete the project at Belene, on the Danube, 180 kilometres northeast of the capital Sofia.

The country's center-right government has reportedly unsuccessfully courted Romania and Serbia as it angles for a new chief investor in its second nuclear power plant Belene to replace the German energy company RWE, which withdrew last autumn.

The plant was originally to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport for EUR 4 B. The firm had signed a contract with the previous, Socialist-led government, swept from power by Borisov's conservative GERB party swept in last year's July elections.

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Tags: Belene NPP, Georgi Parvanov

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