Initial construction work at the Belarus nuclear power plant will begin in August or September 2011, First Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Smeashko said on Monday, February 14.
"We are beginning to build a nuclear power plant this year. The preparatory period is drawing to an end, the document has been signed, according to which initial construction work will begin from the end of August or the beginning of September," he said.
Russian nuclear power engineering company Atomstroyexport has advised its owner, state power corporation Rosatom, to drop Bulgaria's Belene nuclear power project, French daily La Tribune reported, citing a letter that Atomstroyexport sent to its parent.
Rosatom told Dnevnik it would not comment on the letter as it was an internal document and the company was yet to decide whether to exit the project. The proposed withdrawal would be considered a possibility only if Rosatom failed to sign its 12th consecutive agreement with Bulgaria, the company said.
While RWE insisted that its withdrawal from the project, which has yet to get off the ground, was due entirely to financial concerns, the February 2009 secret US embassy cable indicates that safety concerns and shady business practices by other partners were a factor in the German firm's decision to leave in October 2009.
Bulgarian Parliament Chair Tsacheva has made promising hints about the fate of the Belene nuclear power plant. Photo by BGNES
Bulgarian will for sure build its second nuclear power plant at Belene, Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva has declared.
CEZ AS, the Czech Republic’s largest power producer, will delay the construction of two additional reactors at its Temelin nuclear power plant, Hospodarske Noviny reports, citing Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kocourek.
The construction could be delayed by as much as several years, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person from the company. The main reason is uncertain demand for electricity after 2020, according to the report.
Bulgaria aims to limit the cost of the Belene nuclear plant being built by Russia’s ZAO Atomstroyexport to 7 billion euros ($8.8 billion), Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said.
Borissov met today with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov in Sofia to discuss joint energy projects including construction of the 2,000-megawatt power plant on the Danube river, natural-gas supply and the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe via Bulgaria.
MINSK, 22 January (BelTA) – The construction of the nuclear power plant in Belarus will bring down energy production prime cost by 20%, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk said during the online conference on the BelTA website on 22 January.
“The study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus revealed that after the nuclear power plant is commissioned the prime cost of electric energy production will be reduced by about 20%, the calculations however did not take into consideration the increase in gas prices. The purchase of natural gas will decrease by 4-5 billion cubic meters,” the Deputy Energy Minister said.
Balkan states are gambling on the nuclear option as the best way to reduce the energy shortage but whether the risks pay off remains to be seen.
The three guards stand at the gate in the 40°C afternoon heat, ignoring the bustle around them. Grim-looking barbed wire coils round the top of the tall fence, as if designed to stop convicts escaping from prison.
ISTANBUL, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Turkey will make changes to a nuclear energy tender law nearly two months after it received just one bid in a tender to build the country's first nuclear power plant, an Energy Ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday.
A consortium comprised of Russian Atomstroyexport and Inter Rao along with Turkey's Park Teknik Group was the sole bidder in a tender to build and operate Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Mersin on the Mediterranean coast.
Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant at Kozloduy on the Danube River said on November 14 that it paid back early a $52.5 million loan to Russia's state-owned Roseximbank, which it took to upgrade its two working 1000MW reactors.
The reason for the early repayment of the loan, due in 2021, was avoiding currency risks, the plant said, as quoted by website mediapool.bg. The loan was denominated in US dollars, while its revenue was in leva and euro, the plant operator said.
