Bulgarian Right-Wingers Rise Against Belene NPP

A file picture dated September, 2008, showing workers during the construction of the first 1 000 MW unit of the second nuclear plant of Belene, Bulgaria. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria's Belene nuclear power plant project should be immediately suspended, according to the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party.

UDF believes that the Bulgarian government has already received data by the consultant of the project, British bank HSBC, but refuses to make the data public.

The party has therefore demanded that the ruling centrist-right GERB present all HSBC data and analyses concerning Belene to the Parliament and the Bulgarian society.

The nuclear reactor for which Bulgaria has paid at approximately 60% can be either used as a 7th Unit in the existing Kozloduy NPP or sold, the party also believes.

"If the ruling party continues to hide information from Bulgaria's citizens, they will end up repeating the unfavorable contracts for natural gas imports that the Bulgarian Socialist Party's cabinet signed with Russia," UDF has warned in a statement.

The right-wingers want Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to announce what the government's future actions will be on the Belene nuclear project.

In October, Bulgaria and Russia reached an agreement to extend the negotiations over Belene nuclear project by another six months as of the beginning of October amidst continuing haggling over its price and feasibility.

The contract between Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK and Russia's Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Rosatom, was extended by the end of March.

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