Bulgaria To Begin Privatisation Process For Stalled Belene In Early 2018, Says Minister

16 Aug (NucNet): Bulgaria plans to start a privatisation procedure for the stalled Belene nuclear power station project with a tender process beginning in early 2018, the country’s energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova was quoted as saying in a statement by the ministry. Ms Petkova said the two-unit Belene project and all related assets will be separated from Bulgaria’s state-owned National Electric Company (NEK) into a new company, allowing for it to be sold. According to Ms Petkova, the Bulgarian government insists that the Belene project should only be completed “on a market basis” without the involvement of state guarantees or long-term electricity purchase contracts. She said the government must have a “clear vision” by the end of September 2017 of how best to use the reactor equipment produced for Belene by Russia. In June 2016, the Geneva-based International Court of Arbitration (ICA) ordered NEK to pay €620m ($725m) to Russia’s Atomstroyexport for components which had already been manufactured before the cancellation of the Belene project in 2012. Bulgaria settled the compensation claim in December 2016 for €600m after an interest recalculation. Under the ICA’s ruling Bulgaria assumed ownership of the components. A nuclear station at Belene was originally planned by Bulgaria’s communist government in the 1980s, but was stopped in the early 1990s because of environmental and financial concerns. The project was revived in 2008, but formally abandoned in 2012 because of uncertainties about its financial viability. Since 2016 Bulgaria has been considering reviving the project.