THE Cabinet on April 7 approved the re-launch of the construction of the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube.
Announcing the decision, Energy Minister Miroslav Sevlievski said the new plant would have a maximum capacity of 2000 megawatts, with two VVER-type reactors using light water under pressure. The plan is that the first of these will go into operation in 2011.
The construction of Belene nuke plant will start after obtaining the required authorisations and licences. Sevlievski said that the next stage of the project implementation was to invite competitive bids for a supplier and contractor for the plant. The bidding procedure for selection of a contractor will be initiated between May 30 and June 10.
The entire procedure is meant to be completed within four months, but the realistic deadline is six months, according to Sevlievski. In any case, this would happen within the term of office of the new cabinet, he said.
The estimated cost of the project is between three and four billion leva.
The fullest possible use of available infrastructure, of previously supplied equipment and personnel will be a major consideration when choosing the contractor.
Belene will absorb the largest single investment in Bulgaria in the next 10 years. Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2005 and the new facility is likely to go into operation in 2011.
The construction of the plant will have a significant impact on the local labour market, analysts said. The average wage in the region is expected to rise and unemployment to halve. After the first generating unit goes into operation, it will create 1000 specialist jobs.
The nuke plant at Belene was declared a site of national significance. This will seriously accelerate administrative procedures related to the construction process.
The future capacity is considered key in making up for the closure of the second pair of 440-megawatt nuclear reactors at the existing Kozlodui nuclear power plant. Bulgaria closed the two oldest units at Kozlodui in 2002 and is to close the other two in 2006, bowing to safety concerns by the European Union, which it is scheduled to join in 2007.
This will leave Kozlodui with two 1000-megawatt units, which are currently being upgraded to meet higher safety standards. By re-launching the Belene project, Bulgaria hopes to keep its leading power exporter position in South-Eastern Europe.
Construction of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant at Belene started in 1982. The project was mothballed in May 1990 and financing was reduced. As Bulgaria started to prepare the decommissioning of the two oldest reactors at Kozlodui, in December 2002 the Government decided to revive the project.
During a visit to Belene on May 3, 2004, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg declared the Cabinet’s resolve to have the investor for the project selected by the end of the year. In October 2004, an Environment Ministry panel approved an environment impact assessment report saying that the project could get the go-ahead.
Late in 2004, Deloitte &Touche were selected as financial consultant and Parsons Europe Ltd as engineering consultant for the project.
So far, three consortiums have told the Government they want to build the new plant. However, the Cabinet’s decision to use light-water technology has shut the door to one of them, led by Canadian Atomic Energy Canada Ltd, which offered the heavy-water CANDU technology.
This has left in the race a consortium made up of France’s Framatome, Germany’s Siemens and Russia’s Atomstroyexport and the team of Czech engineering firm Skoda, Italy’s UniCredit, Citibank and Czech Komercni Banka.
In a comment on the April 8 decision, the BBC said that opponents of the construction of the new plant said that the site was prone to earthquakes and that Bulgaria should improve its energy efficiency and invest in renewable energy sources instead. Some economists have questioned the wisdom of such a large investment, the BBC said.