May 23 (SeeNews) - Several hundred people gathered in Sofia on Tuesday as the expected revival of a 30-year old project for the construction of a second nuclear power plant (NPP) in Bulgaria resurrected the dispute which has surrounded the project since its inception.
Opponents of the Belene NPP project fear it will lead to heavy fiscal burdens for the country, while at the same time further deepening the country's energy dependence from Russia. Its supporters, however, claim, the project is crucial for meeting the country's energy needs and for the economic development of Bulgaria's economically lagging northern part.
In 2008 the then Socialist-led government broke ground for the plant in Belene, on the Danube river, after a long pause and hired Russia's 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 consruction costs and unclear prospects for the sale of electricity produced by the plant. In December 2016, Bulgaria paid 601.6 million euro ($720.5 million) in compensation to Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, for the equipment manufactured by the Russian company for the project following international arbitration.
The equipment is now stored at the site designated for the plant.
Atomstroyexport will be the only supplier of nuclear fuel for the plant if it commences operations.
Last week, Bulgaria's government asked parliament for a mandate to negotiate with potential strategic investors in the project and submitted a report on the options for its revival drafted by the energy ministry.
The analysis by the ministry has shown that the most appropriate option for rational use of the existing equipment is to resume the construction of the power plant jointly with a strategic investor, on a market basis and without Bulgarian state guarantees. By using this option Bulgaria could recover the costs incurred over the years since the start of the project and will ensure the country's energy security in the long term, the government said.
Earlier this month, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) confirmed its interest in investing in the Belene NPP project.
Regarding the financial expenses related to the project, prime minister Boyko Borissov and energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova have stressed oseveral occasions that the country will only participate in the project company via a non-monetary contribution - the reactors and other equipment plus the construction site and the licences.
However, even if the country's only contribution to the capital of the company running the project consists of the already existing equipment, Bulgaria will still have to provide fresh cash during the construction period in order to cover interest payments on the loan needed for building the plant, Traicho Traikov, former minister of economy and energy, told SeeNews on Wednesday.
"During the construction period, interest fees will amount to around 2 billion euro, if I'm not mistaken," Traikov said.
In addition, even under the best-case scenario, the power plant will incur losses during the first years of its operation, which have to be covered by the shareholders in the company, Traikov noted.
The only option for Bulgaria to avoid those losses is to sell the equipment to the selected strategic investor and thus stay out of the company's shareholding structure.
Futhermore, Bulgaria is obliged to connect the power plant to the existing electricity grid to comply with its energy legislation. The expenses for doing so amount to around 1.3 billion levs - for two 400 KV substations, several smaller ones, etc., Traikov explained.
At the same time, Russia has embraced the prospects for the revival of the project.
"We do not know what economic model the Bulgarian side will propose for completion of the project [...] Rosatom will participate in it anyway," Russian news agency TASS quoted Alexei Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom, as saying on Tuesday.
In addition, the possibility of Russian participation in the project was also raised by Bulgaria's president Rumen Radev during his May 21-22 visit to Moscow, where he met with president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"With president Putin we made a strategic overview of our relations. We examined all opportunities, all good traditions, as we have a really great potential in different areas - economy, trade and, especially energy," Radev said in a statement.
Not everyone in Bulgaria, however, is as upbeat.
"We are here to show that Bulgaria really has citizens, who want Europe. We are here, to seek responsibility for this monstrous lie," Hristo Ivanov, leader of the Yes, Bulgaria political party, an extra-parliamentary pro-EU right-wing party, said during a rally against the planned resurrection of the project.
At the same time on Tuesday, supporters of centre-left political party ABV rallied in Sofia in support of the NPP project.
Rumen Petkov, leader of ABV party and a staunch supporter of the project, said it will inject life into the economy Bulgaria's north.
The project is also of utmost importance for securing Bulgaria's energy independence, Petkov said, according to a video file from the rally aired by public broacaster BNT.
Now it is up to parliament to decide whether to unfreeze the project, which is expected to feature high on the agenda of a forthcoming visit by Borissov to Russia.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)