Bulgaria re-launches construction of Belene nuclear plant

04/09/2008

Bulgaria hopes a new, 4 billion-euro facility will help it regain its earlier role as a Balkan energy powerhouse.

(Reuters, AFP, AP, DPA, EurActiv, RIA Novosti, SNA, Dnevnik, Mediapool, Bulgarian Government - 03/09/08; Sofia Echo - 02/09/08; Reuters - 01/09/08; Dnevnik - 28/08/08)

The Belene project is expected to boost employment in the region as construction works would require up to 10,000 people and the plant itself will employ 2,000. [Getty Images]

Bulgaria re-launched construction of its second nuclear power plant (NPP) on Wednesday (September 3rd), in a bid to regain its leading position on the regional power market.

"This is the largest industrial project in Bulgaria in the last 18 years", Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said after turning the first sod of the 2,000-megawatt plant near the northern town of Belene, on the Danube River. "Nuclear energy and the development of Belene will guarantee the country's autonomy in terms of energy supplies."

The estimated cost of the new nuclear facility is 4 billion euros, but many expect it to grow to more than 6 billion euros by mid-2014, when the plant is scheduled to become fully operational. Located about 250km northeast of Sofia and about 100km to the east of the existing Kozloduy NPP, the Belene plant will have two Russian VVER-1000 pressurised water reactors, each with an installed capacity of 1,000 megawatts and a service life of 60 years.

Those reactors are the "best regarded model in the EU" and offer a high level of safety, according to a government statement.

The Belene NPP was approved in the early 1980s and its foundations were laid in 1987. But four years later, lack of funding and pressure from environmental groups forced authorities to shelve the project, after already spending over $1 billion.

It was officially unfrozen in April 2005, about three years after authorities made the decision to resume construction. They hoped Belene would offset the slump in electricity exports that followed the EU-required shutdown of four of Kozloduy's reactors in January 2007.

According to Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEC), power exports dropped from 7.7 million kilowatt hours in 2006 to 4.5 million in 2007.

The foundations of the two units are to be laid by March 2009, with actual construction scheduled to begin about two months later. Unit 1 is expected to be up and running in December 2013 and unit 2 in June 2014.

NEC, which will have a 51% majority stake in the plant, contracted Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly Atomstroyexport in 2005 to build the Belene NPP, along with France's Areva and Germany's Siemens as subcontractors. It is now expected to select a strategic partner to acquire the remaining 49% minority stake in the plant by the end of this month.

Germany's RWE and Belgian utility company Electrabel, which were shortlisted in March, are now expected to submit their final offers by September 15th. Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said on Wednesday a strategic partner would be selected by the end of this month.