Bulgaria has abandoned the Belene NPP project, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said yesterday. The reason is the government's lack of funds. "We cannot afford it," Bloomberg reported Borisov as saying. He estimated the total cost of the NPP (including debt servicing) at 10 billion euros. The reactor intended for Belene will be installed at the Kozloduy NPP, Borisov noted. Bulgaria will pay 140 million euros for it. A gas-fired power plant will be built in Belene, Bulgaria's Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said yesterday (quoted by Novinite). According to Bulgarian officials, the official refusal to build Belene will be sent today to Rosatom (its subsidiary Atomstroyexport was the contractor for the plant's construction).

Rosatom

State Corporation for Nuclear Energy. Shareholders – the state (100%). Financial indicators (company data, 2010): revenue – 498 billion rubles; profit – 44.3 billion rubles.

Atomstroyexport was selected to build the station in 2006. At that time, the cost of two 1000 MW power units was estimated at almost 4 billion euros. At the end of 2008, Germany's RWE became a "strategic investor" in the construction of the nuclear power plant. It was assumed that RWE would invest 2 billion euros and receive 49% of the project. But in 2009, RWE withdrew from the project, and the station's construction was frozen.

Bulgaria delayed signing the general contract, citing disagreements over the cost of construction. Bulgarian officials said they had offered Atomstroyexport to build the station for 5 billion euros, while the Russian company insisted on 6.3 billion euros. This price was set in a memorandum signed by NEK and Atomstroyexport. Rosatom offered Bulgaria a loan to build the station. But Bulgaria chose to form a pool of investors for the station construction project, giving Rosatom only 47% and keeping 51% for itself. The remaining package was to be divided between Finland's Fortum and France's Aran Technologies.

If Bulgaria does abandon Belene, it faces fines that significantly exceed 58 million euros, says a Rosatom representative. This is the cost of the preparatory work already completed at the Belene construction site. Atomstroyexport filed a lawsuit for this amount against NEK in the International Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris last summer. The Russian company does not plan to withdraw its claims, says a Rosatom representative.

The press secretary of the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the situation. In the coming days, a visit to Russia by the Bulgarian Minister of Energy is planned, during which the issue of building a nuclear power plant in Belene will be discussed, among other things.

Bulgaria has no time for nuclear energy