Bulgaria Plans to Pick Investor for Nuclear Plant by End of 2019

Reuters reported that Bulgaria plans to open a tender to pick a strategic investor for its revived Belene nuclear power project on the Danube next month and to pick a winner by the end of 2019. China's state-owned CNNC, France's Framatome - a unit of EDF - and state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co have expressed interest in the project to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors at Belene.

Bulgaria Energy Minister Ms Temenuzhka Petkova said an invitation to become a strategic investor would also be extended to Russia's Rosatom.

Sofia cancelled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to find investors and facing pressure from the United States and the European Union to limit its energy dependence on Russia, which had been under contract to build the plant.

In June, parliament ordered the government to revive the project.

Bulgaria plans to keep a blocking stake in the venture, Petkova said. She added that the government would prefer an investor who plans to build the plant within eight years for about 9 billion euros (USD 10.23 billion).

Ms Petkova told a parliamentary hearing that "We have a site on which the necessary infrastructure is in place and we believe the conditions exist for this project to be completed in a shorter term than 10 years."