60% of Bulgarian Voters Said 'Yes' to New N-Plant

A total of 60.55% of all Bulgarians who took part in Sunday's nationwide referendum voted in favor of the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the country.

With 97.14% of the votes counted, it emerged early on Monday that a total of 832 742 people backed the potential construction of a new nuclear power plant, while 522 927 voted against.

Bulgaria's population is approximately 7 million.

The referendum was invalidated by low turnout, as merely 21% of the eligible voters cast their votes . A total of 4 345 450 people were supposed to cast a vote for the decision of the voters to be binding. As the turnout is over 20%, and more than half of the votes are positive, then the question is tabled for debate to parliament.

The referendum resulted from a petition organized by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) after in March 2012 the center-right government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the GERB party terminated the project for the construction of a second Bulgarian nuclear power plant – located in the Danue town of Belene – by Russian state company Atomstroyexport, subsidiary of Rosatom, with a capacity of 2000 MW.

Bulgaria will "logically" go for building a seventh reactor at its existing NPP in Kozloduy, Bulgarian Economy Minister Delyan Dobrev commented Sunday on the results of the nation's referendum.