Russia and Bulgaria sign memorandum to complete Belene nuclear plant

Russia and Bulgaria sign memorandum to complete Belene nuclear plant

2010-12-01 07:40:33 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Russia and Bulgaria on Tuesday signed three memorandums to set up an engineering company to complete Bulgaria's Belene nuclear plant that began construction in 1984.

The three memorandums were signed in Sofia, Bulgaria. The construction of the 1000-megawatt Belene project began in 1984 but works were stopped in 1991 after a shortage of funding as well as protests by environmental groups.

Rosatom, Russia's nuclear corporation, is one of the agencies that will be involved in the project. Rosatom head Sergei Kirilenko added that Bulgaria’s National Energy Company, Fortum Corporation (from Finland) and Altran Technologies (from France) will be part of the project too.

On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said that the Balkan country would not allocate any more money for the Belene nuclear power plant. He added that the project would continue only if Russia invests more money into the project.

The new 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant project cost around 6 billion euros and is located in Belene, northern Bulgaria. In 2008, Rosatom’s subsidiary Atomstroyexport was contracted to build the nuclear plant but the project was dropped after a dispute over construction costs.

Following the dispute, the project collapsed even more after the withdrawal of its strategic investor, the German power giant RWE, which was originally planned to hold a 49-percent stake. Russia has since offered to acquire a stake in Belene but Bulgaria was reluctant to accept.

Belene’s first 1,000-megawatt reactor is expected to go online in 2016, followed by the second reactor one year later. The nuclear power plant will have and operation capacity of sixty years.

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