Bulgaria To Hire Germany's RWE as Strategic Investor in Belene N-Plant Project by End-2008 - Media

At the moment technical details are being discussed, Klasa quoted the CEO of state-run Bulgarian power utility NEK, Lyubomir Velkov, as saying.

Bulgaria picked RWE as strategic investor for 49% of its future 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant, estimated to cost around four billion euro ($5.0 billion), in early October. NEK will own 51% of the plant to be built at Belene, on the Danube River.

Earlier this month Bulgaria said it gave RWE several more months, until next spring, to make up its mind whether it will become a strategic investor in the project. The German company outbid Belgium's Electrabel for the minority stake in the project.

Electrabel still can be included in the project - only under the conditions already proposed by RWE, Velkov said.

Bulgaria hopes the new nuclear plant will help it make up for the generating capacity it lost after closing down the four Soviet-made reactors of 440 megawatts each at its sole Kozloduy nuclear power plant as a condition for joining the European Union in 2007. The closures left Kozloduy operating its two remaining reactors of 1,000 MW each.

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