7 Dec (NucNet): Bulgaria wants to build the two-unit Belene nuclear power station within 10 years and at a cost of up to €10bn, Bulgarian energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova told a parliamentary hearing today, according to Bulgarian National Television.
Ms Petkova also told the energy committee hearing yesterday that the ministry believes that building the two-unit station in eight years and for €9bn is “realistic”.
She told parliament today that the government would like state energy company NEK to have a “blocking stake” – potentially giving it a veto if necessary – in the project, but only by contributing existing assets and infrastructure at the Belene site in northern Bulgaria, valued at €1.5bn.
The government’s policy to attract private investment for the project, subject to there being no state guarantees or long-term electricity purchase contracts, remains unchanged, Ms Petkova said.
Ms Petkova said the procedure to select an investor for Belene is ready and will start in early 2019, with the aim of completing it by the year’s end. Earlier reports quoted the minister as saying that the procedure was to start by the end of 2018.
In 2008, Bulgaria ordered the design, construction and commissioning of two Russian VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor units for Belene. The project was cancelled in 2012 because of financial and political considerations. It was revived again in June 2018 after a series of arbitration procedures which took about four years to conclude.
