Bulgaria refused to complete the construction of the Belene NPP, but thought about building a new reactor at the Kozloduy NPP. This was stated by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov. Rosatom was previously supposed to build the Belene nuclear power plant, and then participated in the tender as part of a consortium of several companies.

No to Belene

“No (we will not continue the construction of Belene - ). But we will consider the possibility of building new reactors at the Kozloduy NPP. We will make contact with neighboring countries as potential buyers of energy,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said in an interview with bTV, answering a question about the construction prospects.

Back in 2006, the National Electricity Company of Bulgaria (NEC) and Rosatom signed an agreement on the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant, but the general construction contract was never concluded and the construction of the station did not begin. The nuclear power plant project involved the construction of Belene with two units with a total capacity of more than 2,000 MW.

The Bulgarian government has invested about 3 billion leva (about €1.5 billion) in the project. But in 2009 the process of building Belene was stopped.

In March 2012, Bulgaria decided to abandon the construction of a nuclear power plant. But at the time of the refusal, the company Atomstroyexport of Rosatom had already manufactured the first set of equipment for nuclear power plants. Due to the refusal, the Russian company sued Bulgaria in the amount of €1 billion to the Arbitration Court at the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva. He sided with the Russian side and ruled that Bulgaria should compensate Atomstroyexport for damages in the amount of €620 million, RBC reports. This amount included the debt itself in the amount of €601 million, and the remaining €20.9 million is the interest accrued on the amount of the debt.

On October 26, 2016, Russia and Bulgaria agreed to pay the debt in full by mid-December of the same year. The Russian side promised that if NEC paid Atomstroyexport the amount of the debt on time, the Russian Federation would waive its interest claims. As reported by the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy, payment was to be made from 16 to 25 December.

At the end of December, Rosatom reported that NEC had fully repaid its €601.6 million debt.

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said in May 2018 that the country intends to restart the Belene construction project. The Bulgarian side emphasized that if a decision is made to implement the project, the selection of a strategic investor will be through a competitive procedure.

At the same time, Rosatom representatives said that the corporation was ready to participate in the Belene construction project within the framework of international cooperation. In June 2020, Rosatom, Framatome SAS and GE Steam Power signed memorandums of understanding on the Belene NPP construction project, which involve joining efforts to participate in the procedure for selecting a strategic investor for the construction of the plant. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the tender procedure for selecting an investor was suspended.

From Belene to Kozloduy

In January 2021, it became known that a "hybrid" nuclear reactor would be built in Bulgaria. Sofia once again decided to abandon the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant and use the equipment supplied by Rosatom to build a new reactor at the existing Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

According to Eurasia Daily, this proposal was made by the American company Westinghouse, which wanted to sell Bulgaria the technology for the power unit, and then accompany the construction.

“Maximum in 10 years, Bulgaria can get a new nuclear reactor. Today, at a government meeting, we approved the report of the Minister of Energy on the possibility of building a nuclear power unit at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, then Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov said on his Facebook page.

According to him, a working group of experts was created in 2020. In their report, they supported the construction of a power unit at Kozloduy using equipment that Rosatom had already supplied for Belene NPP. Its cost was estimated at $800 million.

“During the negotiations, they (representatives of the American company Westinghouse) said that they did not plan to offer their AP-1000 reactor to Bulgaria. And they will support the idea of ​​using the equipment that was supplied as part of the Belene project,” said Temenuzhka Petkova, head of the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy, at a government meeting.

She added that Westinghouse will carry out the project with existing equipment and, for example, provide security systems.

bbabo.Net