The Bulgarian government is seeking private investors to revive the Belene nuclear power project that was cancelled in 2012. The government, which had to pay €620m in December 2016 to Russian nuclear group Rosatom as a compensation for having cancelled the €10bn project, is now considering privatising the nuclear project. The project could be built without state guarantees or mandatory long-term power purchase contracts. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has expressed its interest in investing in the project and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has announced that it could finance Belene.
The construction of the Belene power plant started in 1987 but was stopped in 1991 under the pressure of ecological movements and neighbouring countries. The project was revived in 2002 and Atomstroyexport was selected in 2006 to build two 1,000 MW VVER-1000 reactors. However, the €10bn project failed to attract investors and was cancelled in 2012 due to financial constraints combined with American and European concerns over its energy dependence on Russia, prompting Atomstroyexport to file a lawsuit against the Bulgarian Government and to claim €1bn in damages. In June 2016, an international arbitration court ruled that Bulgaria should pay compensation for nuclear equipment it ordered from the Russian company before cancelling the project. The dispute was settled in December 2016.
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