Unit 7 of Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, NPP, will become functional by 2022 or 2023 at the latest, according to Economy and Energy Minister, Delyan Dobrev.

Speaking in an interview Monday morning for the private TV channel bTV, Dobrev explained that the newly established project company will bear full financial responsibility.

The company has an initial capital of BGN 2 M while the reactor should be 100% ready by October 2012. The Minister did, however, point out that this does not mean the construction of the site would begin immediately after that.

Regarding extending the life of Units 5 and 6, he assured that there was no danger of delays and the changes of the NPP management had been made precisely with this goal.

"The Kozloduy CEO is now a politician who will be held responsible of having all procedures on time and schedule," Dobrev explained.

When the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party GERB government suspended the Belene NPP project, it was decided that one of the reactors earmarked for it would be used as unit 7 at the Kozloduy NPP.

After almost three years of balking at it, the Cabinet of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, abandoned the NPP project in March 2012. The plant was supposed to be built by the 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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