The international environmental organization Greenpeace has welcomed the refusal of Germany's RWE to finance a 2000MW nuclear plant in the Bulgarian Danube town of Belene.

According to Greenpeace the decision is another nail in the coffin of nuclear energy in Bulgaria. German utility RWE abandoned plans Wednesday to participate in the construction of the Belene NPP due to funding problems, officials said.

Bulgaria's new centre-right government will hire a consultant to help it decide how to proceed and attract new investors, Tosheva said, adding the process could take a year and a half. The Russian media have suggested that Russia now holds the key to the project’s success or failure.

“There are two main reasons for RWE decision – there is no contract with the executor of the project and no clear financing structure,” Galina Tosheva, head of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, which groups the country's top energy assets, told a news conference.

The 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%.

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.

The new government, which has put Belene under review due to rising costs, plans to cut its shares in the project from 51% to 20-30%, which will still allow the country to keep its blocking quota.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!