site.bta PM: Bulgaria Cannot Reconfirm Tentative Agreement with Westinghouse for Expansion of Kozloduy N-Plant

PM: Bulgaria Cannot Reconfirm Tentative Agreement with Westinghouse for Expansion  of Kozloduy N-Plant

Sofia, April 1 (BTA) - Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told
Parliament here Wednesday that Bulgaria cannot afford to
reconfirm a tentative agreement it has signed with Westinghouse
for the construction of a new nuclear power unit at the existing
 Kozloduy N-plant using a Westinghouse technology. "We are ready
 to work with Westinghouse if they are the investor but this
country does not have financial resources to be a merchant,"
Borissov said in the debating chamber answering a question by MP
 Yanaki Stoilov.

In August 2014, Westinghouse Electric Company announced that it
has signed a non-binding agreement with Bulgaria on the
expansion of the Kozloduy N-plant. The validity of the agreement
 expired on March 31, 2015, and the news media quoted
unidentified sources as saying that Westinghouse had turned down
 Bulgaria's offer to have a 49 per cent stake in the future Unit
 7 at the Kozloduy N-plant and provide a matching share of the
financing necessary to build the new reactor.

Borissov told the MPs that the agreement had been signed
unnecessarily and caused him much trouble. "It is three days now
 and we cannot agree on a joint statement for the press," he
added.

He said that Bulgaria needs to take out a new loan to go ahead
with the project, which it cannot afford. "It is the
government's position that we cannot reconfirm the project with
the proposed arrangement the way it was signed by the previous
government. We cannot make such a commitment."

He added, though, that Westinghouse is welcome to Bulgaria as an
 investor.