Bulgarian prosecutors will investigate alleged irregularities in the environmental feasibility study for the Belene nuclear power plant, following a complaint lodged by local authorities.

The municipal council in the town of Svishtov asked in April Bulgaria's chief prosecutor Boris Velchev and ombudsman Ginyo Ganev to look into the way USD 8 M, allocated for the study, were spent.

The report is not based on any on-the-ground fact checking by Bulgarian firm GCR, picked by Belene's engineering project manager Worley Parsons to carry out the feasibility study, Svishtov councilors claim.

Each page of the report cost Bulgarian taxpayers USD 4.700, without any actual work going into it, said Andrey Zahariev, the chair of the Svishtov municipal council.

The councilors will offer prosecutors all the information regarding the alleged wrongdoings, compiled by local environmental organizations, Zahariev added.

Russia's Atomstroyexport landed last year the deal to build two 1000 MW nuclear reactors at Belene, with the total cost of the project is estimated at close to EUR 2 B.

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