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Traikov, left, and Shmatko attending a news conference in Sofia on Friday.
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Russia will extend funding to Bulgaria to build the stalled Belene nuclear power plant project until Sofia finds a strategic investor, Bulgaria’s economy and energy minister said Friday.
Traicho Traikov told a news conference after meeting Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation, that details on the funding would be worked out in March.
Work on the 2,000 megawatt plant on the Danube river needed up to 1.9 billion euros ($2.56 billion) this year and next, Kiriyenko told the same news conference.
Traikov said his country would not provide any state guarantees for the offered funding.
“Our key priority is for the project to become as attractive as possible for a strategic investor and for the Russian side to have its funds guaranteed,” Traikov said.
The minister said the project could lose its appeal if it was put entirely on hold in the coming year and a half, during which Sofia hoped to find a strategic investor.
Rosatom, which controls the Atomstroiexport unit contracted by Sofia to build Belene, was ready to extend a loan and become a shareholder in Belene, Kiriyenko said.
Atomstroiexport was chosen in 2005 to build the plant, with Areva and Siemens as subcontractors.
“We are ready to provide financing … and when an investor is chosen, they would pay back. We are also ready to provide part of the funds permanently and participate as shareholders, if that is necessary,” he said.
“We’re certain in the profitability of this project,” Kiriyenko said. “Freezing it now will be expensive as most of the equipment has already been produced and a lot has been invested to build the foundation of the plant.”
Bulgaria, which already has one nuclear plant, put Belene on hold last year after German shareholder RWE pulled out due to funding problems.
The new center-right government, elected in July, has questioned the need for Belene as Bulgaria did not need so much power capacity for domestic use and because of the project’s costs, which it said could reach 10 billion euros.
Sofia has said it cannot afford to take a loan during the economic downturn. But it is reluctant to abandon Belene altogether because of the hundreds of millions of euros already invested in it and the compensation it would have to pay to the Russian contractor.
The government decided instead to cut its 51 percent stake and find a new strategic investor during the next year.
(Reuters, Bloomberg)
