site.btaBulgaria, Russia Set to Work towards Fast Solution of Belene Case

Bulgaria, Russia Set to Work towards Fast Solution of Belene Case

Moscow, July 29 (BTA) - Bulgaria and Russia are setting up a working group to consider possible solutions to issues connected with Bulgaria's abandoned Belene N-plant project, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said Friday. An agreement to this effect was made in Moscow Friday by the visiting Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova and representatives of the manegement of the Russian state-owned atomic energy corporation, Rosatom.

The meeting was held in the follow-up of a decision by the International Court of Arbitration in mid-June ordering Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEK) to pay Russia's Atomstroyexport 550 million euro for the equipment produced for the Belene N-plant project before it was scrapped by the Bulgarian government.

The experts in the working group are scheduled to start work promptly so as to come to a mutually beneficial decision the soonest possible.

The two sides were adamant that the excellent cooperation will continue between Rosatom and Bulgaria's Kozloduy N-plant. Petkova is quoted as saying that thanks to good joint work, the process of extending the life of Kozloduy's two operating reactors, 5 and 6, will be successfully completed.

All works at Kozloduy are carried out as scheduled and this will make it possible for Bulgaria to meet 32 per cent of its needs of electricity produced by an N-plant.