The deadline for the payoff of the loan taken by Bulgaria's National Electric Company, NEK, for the flopped project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene will be extended by one year.

The news was announced Monday before journalists by the country's Economy and Energy Minister Delyan Dobrev.

Dobrev explained that part of the loan will be paid through a credit from the Bulgarian Energy Holding, BEH, most likely in the amount of anywhere between EUR 50 and 70 M.

The decision for this credit line had been made Friday during a joint meeting of the Boards of NEK and BEH.

When asked why the deadline had to be extended, the Minister informed that it was imposed by the fact NEK does not have the entire amount available.

After almost three years of balking at it, the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, abandoned the NPP project in March 2012. The plant was supposed to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Rosatom.

The construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant would have cost EUR 10.35 B in the best case scenario, according to the estimates of Bulgarian government's consultant for the project, the HSBC bank.

The 2006 contract that Bulgaria's Socialist-led Three-Party Coalition Cabinet signed with Atomstroyexport for the construction of the Belene NPP was for EUR 3.997 B. Subsequently, however, it became clear that the final price would be higher, which led to years of haggling and seeking of "strategic investors" by the Bulgarian government of Borisov.

At one point Rosatom put the price of the construction of the 2000 MW plant at EUR 6.3 B, while Bulgaria insisted on EUR 5 B. The Borisov Cabinet terminated the project regardless of the Russian compensation claims, arguing that it was "economically unfeasible" for Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's government also recently decided to start the construction of a new reactor in Kozloduy after it gave up on the construction of Belene. Thus, the Bulgarian government decided to install in Kozloduy the 1000 MW reactor that the Russian state company Atomstroyexport already produced for the Belene NPP.

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