Bulgaria Hasn't Told Russia It Quits Belene NPP

Bulgaria's government has not informed Russia's state-owned Rosatom that it wants to quit the two countries' Belene nuclear power plant project.

No project exists for Bulgaria to place the reactor originally meant for Belene in its Kozloduy NPP instead, the Russian Kommersant daily has also revealed.

The daily has pointed out that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has voiced several statements contradicting each other on the Belene project.

On Friday, the PM announced that he had sent Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and former Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov to Moscow to declare that Bulgaria is quitting Belene and may place its new Russian reactor in the Kozloduy NPP instead.

The two Ministers indeed visited Russia in February, but Bulgaria is yet to give up on the nuclear power plant project.

Borisov, as well as Delyan Dobrev, who is to be appointed as Traikov's successor on Wednesday, have stated that Belene will not be a purely Bulgarian-Russian project if it happens at all.

On Saturday, it was announced that Russia's Atomstroyexport, a Rosatom subsidiary, has already assembled the reactor for the first block of the nuclear power plant that is to be built in the Bulgarian Danube town of Belene.

On Friday, Atomstroyexport said it would stop work on the Belene NPP over the "ambiguous position of the Bulgarian government." The company vowed to reduce the number of employees at the construction site.

In October 2011, 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.

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