The acute shortage of qualified labour, a problem that has been the focus of public debate, has manifested in yet another expert statement and in yet another large-scale project.
In an April 29 video conference, the vice-president of Atomstroyexport, the Russian nuclear conglomerate picked to build Bulgaria’s second largest plant at Belene, said the company would have to import thousands of Russian experts.
Gennadiy Tepkyan said that the construction and equipment of the first 1000MW unit would need 2000 Russian workers. At peak periods, the Russian specialist count would reach 6000, he said.
The construction of Belene nuclear plant is said to need a total workforce of 10 000, according to estimates by local authorities.
A slew of politicians and human resource specialists voiced alarm over the short-sightedness of successive governments, which failed ensure the availability of a sufficient number of Bulgarian workers and specialists for the construction and operation of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant (NPP).
Lack of an educational policy in this regard, they said, occurred despite the knowledge that the Belene project would be unshelved sooner or later.
Only recently officials at central and local level started addressing the issue. In late April, the dean of Veliko Turnovo University SS Cyril and Methodius, Plamen Legkostoup, met Pleven regional governor Tsvetko Tsvetkov to consider opening a department of the university in the city.
Both officials underscored that Pleven was in need of a large university in a bid to prepare more experts for a region of growing economic intensity.
“I am ready to launch discussions between business, the regional education inspectorate, our team and the authorities of Pleven department over the trends in economic development and the needs of the labour market in Bulgaria,” Tsvetkov said. He pinpointed the construction of Belene nuclear plant among the most important factors.
The workers issue aside, Tepkyan said that the Belene project was running with no delay, nor changes to the price parameters.
This means that Atomstroyexport, aided by subcontractors Areva of France and Siemens of Germany, is due to begin construction work before the year expires and to hand in the first unit in 2013 and the second in 2014.
Bulgaria’s power grid operator and Belene NPP project manager, the National Electricity Company (NEC), and Atomstroyexport, however, are yet to agree on a procedure to dispose of used nuclear fuel.
Tepkyan said he was confident that the preferred method would resemble that employed for Kozloduy NPP, where Bulgaria and Russia have signed an agreement concerning its processed fuel.
In related news, BNP Paribas was tasked to structure the loan financing for Belene nuclear power plant and is due to sign an agreement to this effect by the end of May. The French financial institution was preferred to Societe Generale, also of France, at an April 21 meeting of NEC’s board of directors.
Under the agreement, BNP Paribas will have to secure financing for the entire four billion euro project. The bank has pledged to extend a five-year syndicated loan worth 250 million euro. According to NEC sources, quoted by investor.bg, this loan would be syndicated to four other banks, whose names were not mentioned for confidentiality reasons. This funding comes on top of the 250 million euro loan that BNP agreed to syndicate last year.
BNP Paribas, however, refrained from subscribing to the equator principles, which oblige banks to reject financing for projects whose environmental and social parameters are not up to standards.
Despite the reassurances of Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov, who voiced his confidence that financing would hardly be a problem because the project had attracted a lot of interest, experts and moves by interested financiers indicate the opposite.
While specialists said lenders had become more cautious in lending large sums in view of the global financial crisis, German newspaper Die Welt saw German banks withdrawing their offers for financing the Belene project over environmental concerns and the potentially hazardous technology to be employed at the plant.
The same concerns are said to have prompted Germany’s RWE to consider withdrawal from a race to become the strategic investor at Belene NPP, according to Die Welt. RWE and Electrabel of Belgium were shortlisted as finalists in a race for up to 49 per cent stake in Belene’s operating company. The German newspaper said that RWE is reportedly looking to re-direct the investment flow into the purchase of British Energy.
According to unofficial information, RWE is NEC’s preferred candidate. RWE and Electrabel are due to file their binding offers by early June, whereas NEC is said to name the winner at the end of July.
