Bulgarian Nuclear Project in Doubt
Business, Economy, Politics, Region, Top News Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Sofia | 30 July 2009 | The future of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant is in serious doubt after a powerful parliamentary committee chair insisted that the project is now frozen.
The new chair of the Bulgarian parliament’s economy, energy and tourism committee, Martin Dimitrov, said Wednesday that the 2,000MW Belene NPP project was too expensive and could cost the country its financial stability at a time of economic crisis.
Quoted by the Bulgarian News Network, BNN, Dimitrov said, “If there is a private investor willing to risk his own money in the project, not the money of Bulgarian taxpayers, we may analyse the project.”
Crucially, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov has also said that the project is too costly at a time of budget shortfalls. Bulgaria will also review its role in major oil and gas pipeline projects in coming months.
Dimitrov’s stance was also backed by his deputy on the committee, Stoyan Mavrodiev, a member of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov’s GERB party. He said that the state should not be providing loan guarantees for the 3.9 billion euros nuclear project at a time when the country is struggling to cope with a one billion euros budget shortfall, BNN reports.
The Bulgarian government has a majority 51 percent stake in the project through the National Electric Company, with Germany’s RWE holding the remaining 49 per cent.
Nuclear plant projects worldwide are invariably blighted by massive cost overruns and build delays. It is unlikely that private investors would be attracted to a nuclear project that is not underwritten by the state. Source: Balkaninsight
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