Belene - another termination

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AtomInfo.Ru, PUBLISHED 12.10.2023

The Bulgarian government has once again announced the termination of the Belene NPP construction project.

On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the government decided that the unfinished Belene NPP was losing its status as a national facility.

In addition, the government instructed the Ministry of Energy to take steps to cancel the procedure for selecting a strategic investor for the Belene NPP, announced by the National Electric Company (NEC) of Bulgaria.

The NEC should send a notice of cancellation of the procedure to companies previously selected as preferred candidates for the role of strategic investors. These are the Chinese corporation CNNC, a subsidiary of Rosatom, the South Korean KHNP, as well as Framatome and General Electric.

The procedure for selecting a strategic investor started in 2019. It was planned that it would last one year, one month and 15 days.

The start of the procedure was made possible thanks to the decision of the government of Boyko Borisov, adopted in 2018. With this decision, the Borisov government reversed the decision of the Borisov government to stop the construction of the Belene NPP, adopted in 2012.

In Bulgaria, it is customary to call the Cabinet of Ministers of 2018 as "Borisov-3", and the Cabinet of Ministers of 2012 - "Borisov-1". Thus, Borisov-3 reversed the decision of Borisov-1.

Work on the construction of the station, terminated by the decision of 2012, has been carried out since 2005, when a tender was announced to select a general contractor. The tender was won by the Russian company Atomstroyexport, the contract agreement between ASE and NEC was signed in 2008.

The decision to resume the construction of the Belene NPP was made in 2002 by the government of Simeon Borisov of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (in 1943-1945 - Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria).

The first freeze in the construction of the Belene NPP occurred in 1990 due to a lack of funding against the background of a change in the political regime in Bulgaria. At that time, 40% of construction work was completed on the first block of the station.

The construction of the Belene NPP began in 1987. Initially, it was assumed that four units with VVER-1000 reactors would be built at the site.

Approval of the site for the construction of the second Bulgarian NPP took place in March 1981 by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the NRB.

Discussions on the possibility of building a second station have been going on since the early 1970s.

Topics: East Europe, Bulgaria, NPP Belene

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