U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric, controlled by the Toshiba Group, is
expected to sign a 500 billion yen ($4.87 billion/3.59 billion euro)
deal in the coming days to construct a nuclear reactor for Bulgaria's
nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kozloduy, Japanese media reported on
Thursday.
Westinghouse Electric is in the final stages of negotiations on a basic
agreement with Bulgarian Energy Holding for a reactor with an output
between 1.0 million kilowatts and 1.2 million kilowatts, Nikkei business
daily reported. The facility would likely go online around 2025, it
said, adding that an agreement could be reached later this week.
Kozloduy NPP deputy CEO said last week Westinghouse is planned to hold a
30% stake in the project company for the construction of a new unit. The
project company will emerge through the transformation of Kozloduy-New
Builds, a unit of the plant operator set up in May 2012 for the
construction of the new reactor.
In December, experts from Westinghouse, Toshiba Corporation and the
state-run Bulgarian Energy Holding, which is the NPP's owner, signed an
agreement to open talks on the construction of the new reactor.
In June, the Bulgarian government said Westinghouse has replaced its
parent company as a strategic investor in the construction of the new
unit at the Bulgarian NPP at the request of the two foreign companies.
The U.S. and Japanese companies were stated as saying at the time that
the decision was prompted by the fact that Westinghouse, as a provider
of the technology for the construction of the new NPP unit, will be more
efficient in the management of the organisational, technological, and
financial issues during the negotiations.
The Kozloduy NPP remained with two operational reactors of 1,000 MW each
after the country closed down four units of 440 MW each to address
nuclear safety concerns of the European Union prior to its accession to
the bloc. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.