EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Brussels has called on EU member states to end the six-year deadlock over one of Europe's touchiest topics and agree common nuclear safety rules as well as ways in which to store nuclear waste.
"It is an absolute necessity," EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs told EUobserver on Thursday (22 May), while blaming EU governments for a lack of political will to give Brussels a stronger say on the issue.
For two years one of the main world federations for environment protection “Friends of the Earth” leads a campaign for higher responsibility of the banks when funding infrastructural projects.
The French branch of this non-governmental organisation is now criticizing strongly the decision of the French bank BNP Paribas to organize the financing of the project for nuclear energy in Belene, Bulgaria, writes the French newspaper “Mond”, cited by BTA.
German energy giant RWE is considering withdrawal from the race to buy 49 per cent in the company that will build Bulgaria´s second nuclear power plant at Belene, German newspaper Die Welt reported on April 20.
The newspaper quoted company sources as saying on April 18 that RWE would re-align the investments earmarked for buying the minority stake in the nuclear power plant to the acquisition of British Energy.
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - Russian plans to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad Region have provoked protests from Europeans concerned about environmental and radiological safety.
Bulgaria's power grid operator the National Electricity Company (NEC) launched the final round of talks with Germany's RWE and Belgium's Electrabel, who are bidding to become strategic investors in Belene nuclear power plant, sources close to the procedure said, as quoted by mediapool.bg on April 3.
NEC wants the two candidates to clarify their offers for a 49 per cent stake in the company that will build and run Belene. The two 1000MW reactors of the plant are scheduled to be connected to the power grid by 2014.
A debate on the pros and cons of building Belene nuclear power plant was scheduled for April 2 at Sofia University, but just hours before it scheduled start, the organiser University Environmental Club UNECO said that it had to be postponed due to the “lack of participants defending the pro-Belene position”.
SOFIA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria and the United States have signed an intergovernmental agreement on assistance in nuclear non-proliferation, the local Bulgarian news agency reported Tuesday.
(AP) SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria has shortlisted Germany's RWE Power and Belgian Electrabel SA as strategic investors in a second nuclear plant, the state-owned NEK power utility said Tuesday.
NEK is seeking investors for a stake of up to 49 percent stake in the Belene Power Company, which will own and operate the new nuclear power plant.
SOFIA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Bulgaria should push ahead with plans to build a new nuclear power plant rather than opt for wind and solar power to solve its energy problems, the economy and energy minister said on Wednesday.
Petar Dimitrov told a conference estimates showed that his Balkan country's wind power potential was equal to the capacity of 2,000 megawatts of its Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which supplies about 33 percent of Bulgaria's power.
Bulgaria's planned nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube River posed a risk to Romania's energy security, a top aide to Romanian president Traian Basescu said, as quoted by Romanian daily Business Standard on February 20 2008.
