site.btaInvestor Shows Interest in Belene N-plant Project -Former Energy Minister

Investor Shows Interest in Belene N-plant Project - Former Energy Minister

Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - Former energy minister Roumen Ovcharov said in a Nova TV interview on Sunday that Bulgaria suffered a detriment after the project for construction of a second nuclear power plant at Belene was scrapped. He said an investor had shown interest in the project but refused to name him, saying he was not authorized to do this.

"This should be done by the energy minister," Ovcharov said.

He urged that the moratorium on the construction of the nuclear power plant be lifted.

The construction of the Belene nuclear power plant was abandoned as financially unfeasible by GERB's first government in 2012, and Parliament voted to scrap the project early in 2013. In 2016, an arbitration dispute between Bulgaria's National Electric Company and Russia's AtomStroyExport was settled by ordering the Bulgarian company to pay 601.6 million euro for equipment made before the project was stopped.

Ovcharov was charged with mismanagement which caused a detriment of 193 million euro in connection with the abandoned project.

He commented that Bulgaria suffered the detriment after the project was abandoned. "Those who scrapped it are to blame," he stated. The damage was not caused by the three governments which worked on the project nor by the ministers who implemented government decrees.

Ovcharov said the key issue was when the prosecution service would look into who and why abandoned the project.