Bulgaria is counting on loans from Russia, Germany and France to build a new 4-billion-euro nuclear power plant on the Danube, Deputy Economy and Energy Minister Yavor Kuyumdjiev said yesterday.
Funding for the plant, which was due to come from the Bulgarian state and German power giant RWE, was proving difficult, Kuyumdjiev said in an interview with the daily Klassa published yesterday.
“Since RWE is having trouble finding funds, the National Electricity Company (NEC), which is owned by the Bulgarian state, must look for backers for this year,” he said.
Bulgaria was “considering asking export credits from France and Germany to ensure the participation of Areva and Siemens in the project,” Kuyumdjiev said.
The 2,000-megawatt two-reactor plant in the northern town of Belene is to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport with French Areva and German Siemens as subcontractors.
During a visit to Moscow by Premier Sergei Stanishev in late April, Bulgaria also asked Russia about the conditions for a 3.8-billion-euro loan that current Premier Vladimir Putin offered in January 2008 when he was still president.
But Sofia was still awaiting a response.
RWE, which was picked last year to become a strategic partner in the project by acquiring a 49 percent stake in the Belene Power Company, had promised however to start handling its part of the funding by mid-2010, Kuyumdjiev added.
Construction on the plant was initially due to begin in mid-2009, with its first reactor expected to be operational by January 2014 and the second a year later.
Bulgaria used to be the main electricity supplier to the rest of the Balkan countries.
But it was forced to slash exports after agreeing to close down four out of six operational reactors at its sole nuclear plant at Kozloduy in late 2006 in order to join the European Union.