Sergey Kiriyenko: Russia will build Belene NPP; Bulgarian companies will do 30% of the work.

Russia will build Belene Nuclear Power Plant; Bulgarian companies will do 30% of the work, Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said in an interview to Standard newspaper (Bulgaria).

”There is no question “to build or not to build,” Kiriyenko said after the Russian-Bulgarian talks in Sofia.

”The decision has been passed: we will build the plant. Bulgarian companies will do no less than 30% of the work — this is stipulated by the contract. This is over 1bln EUR to be given to Bulgarian sub-contractors for different activities,” Kiriyenko said.

He said that the project would create at least 6,000 jobs and would give Bulgaria over 1bln EUR in tax revenues.

If the plant sells electricity on the domestic market, Bulgaria’s budget will receive 8bln EUR.

”We have not calculated how much Bulgaria will earn from export even though Belene has excellent chances to sell electricity abroad,” Kiriyenko said. He said that Belene’s energy would be fully used on the domestic market but this project should be considered in the regional context as well. According to forecasts, by the time Belene NPP is launched — 2015 — the minimum energy shortage in the Balkans will total 1,500–2,000MW (with the capacities of Belene inclusive). ”If we don’t build Belene, the region will still need an NPP,” Kiriyenko said.

The international tender for the construction of Belene NPP was announced in 2005. Russian Atomstroyexport CJSC won the tender in 2006. The contract was signed in Jan 2008. The cost of the contract is almost 4bln EUR for two 1,000MW reactors. For the moment 51% of the project belongs to Bulgaria, 49% to RWE (Germany).