Bulgaria Freezes Belene

By The Moscow Times

April 5, 2011

Bulgaria imposed a three-month freeze on its Belene nuclear power project over safety concerns, officials said Tuesday.

Bulgarian state utility NEK and Rosatom division Atomstroiexport, contracted to build two 1,000-megawatt reactors at Belene, agreed to delay the project until the end of June, NEK said in a statement. Rosatom denied that information. "Rosatom has not taken a decision to freeze the Belene plant," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said Tuesday. "No such bilateral documents were signed."

Bulgaria contracted Atomstroiexport to design and build Belene in 2006 for 4 billion euros ($5.7 billion), but the project has since stalled amid price disputes and lack of interest among Western investors.

(Reuters, Bloomberg)

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