site.btaUPDATED Decisions on Construction of Belene N-Plant, Designation as Project of National Significance Revoked

At its regular sitting on Wednesday, Bulgaria's Council of Ministers revoked government decisions on the construction of a Belene Nuclear Power Plant and its designation as a project of national significance.

The Cabinet assigned the Minister of Energy to take actions for the termination of a procedure for the selection of a strategic investor or investors for the construction of the N-plant and to notify the bidder preferred to submit binding offers with whom a confidentiality contract has been signed.

In late August, the Cabinet adopted a decision allowing the National Electric Company (NEK) to continue to carry out mothballing of the equipment delivered for the Belene Units 1 and 2 under the technical guidance of the manufacturer AtomStroyExport.

Ground for the power plant at Belene was broken in 1987. In 2012, Bulgaria abandoned plans to build it as unfeasible. In 2016, this country was ordered by an arbitration court to pay BGN 1,170 million to Russian contractor AtomStroyExport for two reactors it had already built for Belene. Since then the Government has been trying to revive the project. Parliament last abolished a moratorium on its construction in June 2018. In August 2919, seven companies, including two Bulgarian ones, entered bids for strategic investors, answering a call launched by the government. Three companies: Russia's Rosatom through its subsidiary Atomenergoprom, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., were invited to submit binding bids. Bids for participation in the project's financial structuring and supply of turbines and other equipment came from France's Framatome and General Electric of the US. The investor selection procedure was suspended in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the spring of 2023, Ukraine expressed interest in purchasing the two Bulgarian reactors for Belene and the related equipment. In early July the Bulgarian Parliament mandated the Government to negotiate the sale with Kyiv. At a meeting between Bulgarian Prime MInister Nikolay Denkov and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Athens on August 21, the Ukrainian side confirmed its interest. The equipment has been appraised, and Ukraine is doing its analyses and estimates of the possible transaction.