The British Nuclear Group (BNG) was interested in Bulgaria's nuclear sector, it emerged on April 6 after Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov met BNG representatives in London. Ovcharov was on a two-day working visit to the UK.

The officials discussed BNG plans for direct investments in Bulgaria's energy sector through the establishment of a BNG subsidiary in Bulgaria.

The two sides also shared experience in the field of construction of new nuclear power plant units and the closure of old ones. At present, Bulgaria has only one nuclear power plant (NPP), in the Danube town of Kozloduy.

In 1999, the Bulgarian Government signed a memorandum of understanding as a prelude to European Union accession talks, agreeing to shut down the first two units of the plant by 2002 as part of its EU entry conditions. Units three and four are to be decommissioned in 2007, but units five and six are to continue operation, and hold an operating licence valid through 2009. Presently, BNG is consultant for some of the projects connected to the closure of first and second units of the Kozloduy NPP.

Bulgaria plans to eventually finish the construction of its second NPP in Belene, also on the Danube. Construction of the Belene NPP originally started in the late 1980s, but was halted due to environmental protests and lack of funds. However, in April 2005, the then-minister of energy Miroslav Sevlievski announced that the Bulgarian Government had approved construction of the plant. The construction, involving two 1000MW reactors, is estimated to cost 2.5 billion euro and scheduled to be completed in the next 10 to 15 years.

In an April 10 interview with the Standart newspaper, Ovcharov said that he did not have the designers, engineers, construction workers or the necessary technical equipment and machines to implement such a project as the construction of the Belene NPP. The regulatory authorities also lack the capacity for the construction of new power plants.

The Government's plans for the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant naturally attract the interest of some of the leading companies in that field.

In February this year, a group of banks led by Citibank announced that it would finance the bid of the Czech Skoda Alliance consortium for the design and construction of units 1 and 2 of the Belene NPP. The banks would finance 75 per cent of the project; the remaining 25 per cent to be shared between the state-owned Czech Export Bank and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). The Czech nuclear power engineering company Skoda JS a.s. - owned by Obedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody (OMZ), a Russian mechanical engineering group - holds a 50-per cent stake in the consortium. The other half is shared by two members of the CEZ Group: Skoda Praha a.s. (30 per cent) and the Nuclear Research Institute Rez a.s. (20 per cent). According to the plans of the alliance, more than 30 per cent of the work is to be subcontracted to leading Bulgarian energy companies.

Skoda Alliance and Russia's Atomstroyexport JSC submitted initial bids in a negotiated procedure with prior publication of a notice under the Public Procurement Act for selection of a contractor for the design, construction and commissioning of units 1 and 2 of the Belene nuclear power plant.