The Bulgarian government is conducting secret negotiations with a private company for the construction of the controversial Belene NPP, according to key politicians of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.

"The cabinet of Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov is doing that behind the backs of Bulgarian citizens, at a time when a referendum regarding the future of nuclear energy is imminent," commented BSP leader Sergey Stanishev at a press event Tuesday.

According to socialist front bench MP Rumen Ovcharov, the government is close to reaching a deal with the other party.

On his part, Stanishev suggested that the private investor in question is US group Global Power Consortium (including the investment fund Quantum Group), which is little known in the area of nuclear energy.

Originally, Belene NPP had to be built by Russian state company Atomstroyexport, but the Bulgarian cabinet froze the project in early spring due to perceived lack of economic effectiveness.

Tuesday Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov answered allegations by saying that as stated earlier, cabinet has closed all negotiations until carrying out the referendum on nuclear energy.

The referendum, scheduled for January 27, 2013, asks Bulgarian voters whether they would like their country to develop nuclear energy by creating new nuclear units.

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