Bulgaria's biggest right-wing party has reiterated its calls on the new government to give up the planned Belene project as it is still undecided whether to scrap or push ahead the construction of the multi-billion nuclear power plant.

"The price tag of the nuclear power plant at the Danube river town will stand at no less than EUR 10 B," Martin Dimitrov, leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), said at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to him Belene nuclear power plant will not benefit local consumers, which makes it completely useless.

"Freezing the project is no solution to the problem," Dimitrov added.

UDF leadership has repeatedly warned that the construction of the plant will translate into a BGN 1300 tax burden for each Bulgarian taxpayer, electricity hikes for decades on end, outdated and dubious Russian nuke units.

After it took office in July 2009, Bulgaria's new government of the GERB party made it clear it was going to reconsider the country's participation in three large-scale energy projects, including Belene nuclear power plant.

Yet a day before the meeting in Gdansk of Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said  the government is looking for private investors in the nuclear plant in an apparent bid to save the plan.

In response to media reports about planned talks with officials from the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, the minister assured that the government will contact all interested parties.

The parliamentary economic commission urged the government earlier in the month to seek a private investors for its stake. State power utility NEK has a majority stake in the plant and has contracted Russia's Atomstroyexport to build the two 1,000 megawatt reactors.

Bulgaria's previous Socialist-led government chose last year German power utility RWE to become a strategic partner in the Belene project with a stake of 49%.

The previous cabinet started talks with the Russian government on a EUR 3.8 B state loan for the project and offered guarantees for it.

It hired BNP Paribas SA, France's largest bank by market value, to arrange a EUR 250 M loan to help fund construction of the nuclear power plant at the Danube river town, whose price tag towered from EUR 4 B to EUR 10 B.

NEK's poor results, triggered by a fall in power consumption, however forced it to breach the conditions on the loan, making it callable.

According to reports and non-governmental organizations RWE AG's plan to expand in Bulgaria's nuclear market is on the brink of collapse because financing for the project couldn't be obtained. 

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