Former Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has revealed his plans to revive the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project if his left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) regains power.

If BSP enters the next government, a referendum will be initiated on Belene's fate, Parvanov told the Bulgarian National Television on Friday.

The former President admitted that the BSP-lead three-way coalition (2005-2009) made mistakes while negotiating Belene's price, adding that those responsible should be punished.

The construction of a new reactor in Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant, Kozloduy, should not be viewed as an alternative to Belene, Parvanov further believes. According to him, Bulgaria should invest in both projects if it wants to develop nuclear energy.

Belene used to be one of the three major Bulgarian-Russian projects which Parvanov backed while he was in office, his so-called Grand Slam which included the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and the South Stream gas pipeline.

Burgas-Alexandroupolis was scrapped by the ruling centrist-right GERB in December 2011.

Parvanov has already admitted he will try to win back his leadership of BSP from former PM Sergey Stanishev.

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