While it is still struggling to bring a strategic investor onboard,
Bulgaria will continue to make payments to Russian contractor AtomStroyExport
for the construction of the first reactor of the future Belene nuclear power
plant project, it emerged on ameeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko
Borissov and Russia's first deputy prime minister Viktor Zubkov.
"By
mid-September, Finance Minister [Simeon] Dyankov will have to shell out a
further 280 million euro for the project's first reactor, which is expected to
be completed by that time," Borissov said, adding that Bulgaria had already paid
300 million euro for this reactor.
In autumn 2009, Germany's RWE withdrew
as strategic investor in the Belene project, which is designed to offset the
loss in generating capacity at Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power facility
following the premature closure of two pairs of 440 MW reactors.
A
Finance Ministry source told Dnevnik that the 280 million euro payment could be
made if Bulgaria's Cabinet has made such a decision, but did not specify where
the money will come from.
This statement contradicted one by Dyankov, who
at the end of February 2010 was adamant that he would not give "a penny of the
state budget for this year, next year or the year after" for Belene's
construction. At the time, he said that a clear financial model should be worked
out so that the nuclear power station project could be
implemented.
Borissov said: "Russia is familiar with how far the project
has progressed and knows that there is a puddle of water at the site at the
moment".
A project roadmap has already been drawn up but there are a
couple of key issues about the project that need to be tackled by the end of
September, Borissov said.