SOFIA, March 28 (Reuters) - Bulgaria has abandoned plans to build the 2,000 megawatt Belene nuclear power plant on the Danube River and will construct a new gas power plant instead, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Wednesday.
The Belene project has failed to attract serious foreign investors in the past three years after Germany's RWE pulled out in 2009 due to funding concerns.
Russia's state nuclear company Atomstroyexport – which is technically supposed to build Bulgaria's Belene NPP – is facing severe shortages, according to a freshly leaked diplomatic cable of the US ambassador in Moscow.
The cable by John Beyrle, US Ambassador to Russia who was the US Ambassador to Bulgaria before going to Moscow, dated April 3, 2009, was released Thursday by WikiLeaks and their Bulgarian partner Bivol.bg.
Bulgarians "risk being cold" this winter if the government did not move forward with the Russian energy projects. This is what Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin said, off-the-record, to his Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borisov, during the summit in Gdansk in September, 2009. The tone of the sentence in question is not clear, we cannot judge if it was threatening enough, but obviously it seriously impressed Borisov in order for him to report it in a timely manner and for Putin’s words to find their place in the classified documents of the American diplomacy.
Russian nuclear power engineering company Atomstroyexport has advised its owner, state power corporation Rosatom, to drop Bulgaria's Belene nuclear power project, French daily La Tribune reported, citing a letter that Atomstroyexport sent to its parent.
Rosatom told Dnevnik it would not comment on the letter as it was an internal document and the company was yet to decide whether to exit the project. The proposed withdrawal would be considered a possibility only if Rosatom failed to sign its 12th consecutive agreement with Bulgaria, the company said.
While RWE insisted that its withdrawal from the project, which has yet to get off the ground, was due entirely to financial concerns, the February 2009 secret US embassy cable indicates that safety concerns and shady business practices by other partners were a factor in the German firm's decision to leave in October 2009.
Austrian companies have shown interest in taking part in the project to build a second Bulgarian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Danube town of Belene.
The information was reported Tuesday by Dr. Michael Angerer, Commercial Counsellor with Austrian Embassy in Bulgaria, during a conference dedicated to the competitiveness of Bulgaria's economy.
Serbia has officially stated its interest in becoming one of the investors in Bulgaria's project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Danube town of Belene.
The official letter was sent to Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, from his Serbian counterpart, Mirko Cvetcovic.
Bulgarian Parliament Chair Tsacheva has made promising hints about the fate of the Belene nuclear power plant. Photo by BGNES
Bulgarian will for sure build its second nuclear power plant at Belene, Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva has declared.
Serbia is ready to consider participation in building of another Bulgarian NPP "Belene", but still awaits concrete offer, in writing, to be able to take concrete decision, announced today Serbian Ministry for Energy Petar Škundrić in interview for Bulgarian National Radio.
"Consent is given but we still didn't negotiated level of involvement in that project. I am expecting in near future offer of Bulgarian Government to enable us to take a decision" explained Mr Škundrić.
Chinese development Bank interested to finance Serbian participation in building NPP in Belene and in some other energy projects, announced today representatives of that Bank.
“We spoke about that project in Bulgaria, we are interested and there is obvious advance in that direction”, vice governor of CDBank Gao Jian told to media after talks with Serbian minister for Energy and Mining Mr Petar Skundric.
