US Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman will encourage Westinghouse and General Electric, both US companies active in the nuclear energy sector, to screen opportunities for investments in units three and four of the Kozloduy nuclear power plan, according to a statement released by the Bulgarian Economy and Energy Ministry in the wake of economy minister Petar Dimitrov's meeting with Bodman.
In the same statement, Dimitrov said that as a result of units three and four being shut down, despite similar facilities still operating in Europe, it was not Bulgaria but the Balkans - and Albania in particular - that suffered a shortage of electricity. Albania has seen its electricity prices doubling over the past year, Dimitrov said.
Bodman said he might raise the issue of re-connecting the two reactors with the European Commission, but he urged Bulgaria to itself be pro-active. He also committed to brief the US nuclear companies on the potential to invest in reactors three and four despite the EC's firm stance that Bulgaria should heed its EU Accession Treaty commitments and not re-start the two 440MW reactors.
In mid-January 2008, Bulgaria announced it was in talks on leasing the two 440MW units to the Canadian Bruce Power and UK company BNFL in return for lobbying to get the reactors working again. Sofia expected Bruce Power representatives for concrete talks, but after Brussels scolded Sofia for speaking up on an already closed EC topic, the visit never took place.
Dimitrov and Bodman also discussed the Nabucco gas pipeline, expected to move crude from the Caspian region, Iran and Egypt to Western Europe to Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
Dimitrov reiterated that Bulgaria regarded Nabucco a top priority project because it represented an alternative source of natural gas, the statement of the Ministry of Economy and Energy reads. Dimitrov has briefed on plans of the Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov to discuss gas supplies with Azerbaijan, as part of a strategy to court crude-rich countries in the Caspian region.
