Bulgarian government to keep Belene stake

24/02/2010

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traycho Traykov announced on Tuesday (February 23rd) that the government will keep at least a 50% stake in the nuclear plant to be built in the town of Belene. Bulgaria and Russia agreed last week to start building the facility this autumn, with Moscow offering to finance construction through a project company established for this purpose. Russia also proposed investing 1.9 billion euros in the project over two years. Traykov said that a stake of 15% to 20% could be offered to Moscow, while the rest of the financing would be covered in kind, through electricity exports. It remains unclear how the government is going to do that, as Atomstroyexport, a Russian nuclear engineering firm, already holds a 49% stake in the project as its contractor. (Dnevnik, Actualno, Trud - 23/02/10)