On November 23 2007, Bulgaria’s National Electric Company (NEC) announced that the site where the Belene nuclear power plan (NPP) would be built was in one of the calmest seismic zones in Bulgaria. This would mean, according to mediapool.bg, that earthquakes like the one from March 1977 could never have happened.

In 1977, the town of Svishtov, about 13km from Belene, was heavily hit by an earthquake which caused the death of 120 people, injured hundreds and demolished houses.

In its statement, NEC quoted a research from the Geophysical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS). The research was based on data from the local seismological monitoring network around Belene, and covered the period between November 1 2006 and October 31 2007, as well as on data from the National Operative Telemetric System for Seismological Information stations.

NEC’s statement also neglected the negative advise from BAS against the Belene NPP, published in the BAS White Book from 1991, mediapool.bg said. The same Geophysical Institute then said that there was a serious seismic risk for the Belene site.

“As we know, in Bulgaria we have a market economy where everything is sold and bought. So is scientific and professional ethics,” mediapool.bg said.

But if Bulgarian science was hopelessly drowning in a marsh, we should pay attention to the opinion of the European Seismological Commission, mediapool.bg said. The seismic map of Europe, published by the commission in 2003 showed that the Belene site was not in a low seismic risk area. The map was based on 475 years of studies.