Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK has responded to Russia's Atomstroyexport that the roadmap the Russians proposed for the troubled Belene nuclear plant project cannot be accepted as a legally binding document, Novinite.com reports.
"The reaching of a final agreement and the signing of a contract for the Belene NPP will depend on the results of the negotiations in the joint financial working group. The key developments on which the direction of the project depends are: completion of the market studies, the appraisal of the risk and cost of the project, and the final settlement on the funding and its parameters," Bulgaria's NEK said in a statement Wednesday night.
NEK further says it hopes that the "fruitful discussions" in the financial working group will be restored, as stipulated by Annex 13 of the 2006 Bulgarian-Russian contract for the plant extending it until September 1, 2011.