July 24 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government said on Wednesday that it has granted approval to National Electricity Company (NEC) to sell part of the equipment delivered for the Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) project to the country's sole operating NPP Kozloduy.
The equipment, which includes filters, fans and other items, will be acquired by NPP Kozloduy for nearly 2.8 million levs ($1.6 million/1.4 million euro), the government said in a statement following its weekly meeting.
NPP Kozloduy will use the equipment for its projects for extending the lifespan of its two functioning 1,000 MW units, and for increasing their capacity to 104%.
Earlier this year, Bulgaria's energy ministry launched a procedure for selection of a strategic investor in the project for construction of a nuclear power plant in Belene, on the Danube river. Belene NPP must be built on a market basis, as the state will not sign with the investor long-term power purchase agreements, nor provide state guarantees, the government has said on several occasions.
In December 2016, following international arbitration, Bulgaria paid 601.6 million euro ($676.6 million) in compensation to Atomstroyexport for the equipment already manufactured by the Russian company for the project. The equipment is now stored at the site designated for the construction of the power plant.
In 2008, the then Socialist-led government broke ground for the plant in Belene, on the Danube river, after a long pause and hired Atomstroyexport to build two reactors for the plant. After the project made scant headway, Bulgaria finally abandoned it with a parliament decision in February 2013, citing huge construction costs and unclear prospects for the sale of the electricity produced by the plant.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)