China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) has expressed interest in investing in Bulgaria’s stalled two-unit Belene nuclear plant, according to energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova. She told parliament on 16 March that CNNC had sent a letter to state energy company NEK “declaring its interest in the Belene nuclear project”. She said international interest in the project had been growing since mid-February and she undertook to draw up proposals on how to proceed with the project by the end of June, noting that Bulgaria had already spent BGN3bn (about $1.9bn) on the project. 

Petkova said that the European Investment Bank (EIB) had expressed interest in financing the project.  She highlighted that the interest of the bank involved many conventions, which are related to how the project would be financially structured, and what will be the return and the profit.

"We are preparing proposals and a working group has already been set up in the ministry...so that we can, within the deadline set by Parliament, put forward these proposals, and...move forward. " 

The working group includes experts from Bulgarian Energy Holding, NEK, the Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility, Kozloduy NPP and ministry experts. 

As well as CNNC and the EIB, Russian state nuclear corporation officials have said Russia could also be interested. In February Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov suggested Belene could be built as a pan-Balkan project to boost energy security. Bulgaria’s final decision will take into account a report by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on the need for new nuclear capacity. The report found that the project could be economically viable as its overall investment cost would be less than €10.5bn, the price of capital less than 4.5% and the ratio of private to public participation more than 70:30%. 

The Belene project was started in the 1980s but was abandoned following the collapse of the USSR. It was revived in 2002, and in 2006 Russia’s Atomstroyexport won an international tender to build the two-unit plant. Bulgaria signed an agreement for the design, construction and commissioning of two Russian VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor units for Belene in 2008, but the project was cancelled four years later, following a change of government. Bulgaria took possession of the reactors for Belene after losing an arbitration suit. In June 2016, the International Court of Arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva awarded Atomstroyexport €620m ($688m) over the cancellation of the project for equipment already manufactured.