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Bulgaria will launch a tender to sell its cancelled Belene nuclear project

Bulgaria plans to launch a tender in early 2018 to sell its scrapped nuclear project in Belene. The current Government aims to attract private investors in the project (up to 90% of the project), which would be developed without state guarantee or long-term power purchase agreements. In 2016, Chinese group China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) expressed an interest in investing in Belene, while the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced that it was ready to finance the project.



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 €600m in 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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