The Bulgarian Socialist Party hopes that the date will be set for a referendum on the fate of the abandoned Bulgarian-Russian Belene Nuclear Power Plant project by the end of 2012.

On Friday, the party filed 770 000 signatures in support of the referendum in the Bulgarian Parliament.

BSP leader Sergey Stanishev pointed out that the referendum would be the first one in the country since the fall of the Communist regime back in 1989.

500 000 signatures were needed to call a referendum in support of the Belene NPP project.

After years of indecision, Bulgaria's government officially gave up on Belene at the end of March. The project was supposed to built by Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Russia's state-owned 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.

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