Bulgaria hopes to pick investor for nuclear plant by end of 2019

CNNC International

07/12/2018 11:38

SOFIA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Bulgaria plans to open a tender to
pick a strategic investor for its revived Belene nuclear power
project on the Danube next month and to pick a winner by the end
of 2019, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said on Friday.
    China's state-owned CNNC  2302.HK , France's Framatome - a
unit of EDF  EDF.PA  - and state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power
Co (KHNP) have expressed interest in the project to build two
1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors at Belene.
    Last month Petkova said an invitation to become a strategic
investor would also be extended to Russia's Rosatom.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1XI4LH 
    Sofia cancelled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to
find investors and facing pressure from the United States and
the European Union to limit its energy dependence on Russia,
which had been under contract to build the plant.
    In June, parliament ordered the government to revive the
project.
    Bulgaria plans to keep a blocking stake in the venture,
Petkova said. The government would prefer an investor who plans
to build the plant within eight years for about 9 billion euros
($10.23 billion), she added.  
    "We have a site on which the necessary infrastructure is in
place and we believe the conditions exist for this project to be
completed in a shorter term than 10 years," Petkova told a
parliamentary hearing.
    Bulgaria has been sitting on unused nuclear equipment since
paying Rosatom more than 620 million euros ($712 million) for
scrapping the project six years ago.
    Petkova has said Bulgaria will not commit more public funds
to Belene, or extend state or corporate guarantees or offer
investors power supply contracts at preferential rates.    
    Critics of the Belene project, first launched in 1981, say
it has been a vehicle for corruption for decades and that the
investment does not justify the benefits.   
($1 = 0.8795 euros)

 (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov and Tsvetelia Tsolova
Editing by Gareth Jones)
 ((angel.krasimirov@thomsonreuters.com; +359 888 695 510))