Bulgaria

Bulgaria pours 300M leva in Belene nuclear plant

Friday, October 17, 2008

Bulgaria's Cabinet plans to inject 300 million leva into the National Electric Company (NEK) to cover the costs of the transitional stage of building the nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube River, the Government press service said in a statement.

The cash would be given as an equity hike in NEK, which is now part of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) that the Cabinet created in September 2009 by integrating Maritza Iztok mines, Maritza Iztok 2 thermal power plant and NEK into the holding structure of gas provider Bulgargaz.

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Bulgaria close to picking winner for nuclear plant

Friday, October 3, 2008

SOFIA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bulgaria is close to choosing a winner between Belgian energy firm Electrabel and Germany's RWE AG to make a strategic investment in a planned 4 billion euro ($5.6 billion) nuclear plant, Bulgarian utility NEK said on Thursday.

In August, state-owned NEK asked RWE and Electrabel, owned by France's GDF Suez, to improve their offers for a 49 percent stake in the plant it is building to restore Bulgaria's position as a leading power exporter in southeastern Europe.

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Bulgaria regulator cleans nuclear plant image

Friday, September 26, 2008

SOFIA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's nuclear regulator on Friday rejected accusations that nuclear power plant Kozloduy used dangerous recycled fuel, firing back against sustained criticism of the plant's safety.
In July, a nuclear scientist and long-term Kozloduy employee, Georgi Kotev, accused the plant in his web blog and several media interviews of using second-hand fuel.

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Macedonia Has Five More Days To Catch Last Train for Belene

Friday, September 12, 2008

Macedonia has five more days to decide how it will deal with the energy crisis that is threatening the region. Experts believe that one of the more favourable options would be to strike a deal with Bulgaria on power supply through subventions from the new nuclear plant that is being constructed in Belene. The documents that Nova Makedonija has come across indicate that the financial construction of the Belene project -- which commenced on 3 September -- is drawing to a close and that the last package of the technical project should be approved by 15 September at the latest. This means that, unless an agreement is reached on our participation in the Belene project in the remaining few days, Macedonia will depend on the import of expensive electricity for decades, unless it gets involved in other serious energy investments. Generally speaking, this will have a negative effect on the population's standard of living because the price of every product is related to the price of the basic energy source -- electricity.

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Environmentalists protest again Belene nuclear power plant

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

On September 9 Bulgarian and international environmental organisations, including the local coalition BeleNE (No to Belene nuclear power plant) and Greenpeace, sent a letter to the European Union (EU) Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes asking her to investigate the tender procedures for subcontractors in the construction of Bulgaria’s Belene nuclear power plant.

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Ecoglasnost approaches Brussels on NPP Belene

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Sofia. National movement Ecoglasnost has sent a letter of request to the European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, whereby it insisted that Commissioner Piebalgs should take a stance on the NPP Belene issue.

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Belene nuclear power plant construction starts

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The groundbreaking ceremony for the official start of construction on the second Bulgarian Belene nuclear power plant is scheduled for September 3. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will turn the first sod, according to the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s press centre in the northern city of Pleven, as quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik.

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The time bomb

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Since the end of the cold war, the United Nations has logged more than 800 incidents in which radioactive material has gone missing, often from poorly guarded sites. Who is taking it - and should we be worried? Julian Borger investigates.

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Kozloduy NPP used in a smear campaign targeting Bulgaria

Monday, August 25, 2008

Sofia. Bulgaria has once again been tarnished before the face of Brussels, as reports over substituted nuclear fuel in NPP Kozloduy reached José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. This is what representatives of the Committee for protection of nuclear physicist Georgi Kotev announced yesterday.
According to Georgi Kotev, fresh supplies of nuke fuel have been substituted for already used combustion material, thus securing a million dollar shady deal.

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Bulgarian Nuclear Plant Reactor Switched Off for Planned Overhaul

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Press Centre of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant has announced that on 23 August 2008 at 0122 [2222 gmt] the sixth reactor of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant was switched off for a planned annual overhaul.

The stoppage is in accordance with annual plan on the activity of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant's reactors, which has been coordinated with the Central Control Administration -Sofia. Planned repair activities and a preventive maintenance of the equipment will be conducted and the reactor will be recharged with fresh fuel for the next operational season.

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