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RWE signs deal to co-run Bulgarian nuclear plant
Sofia (AFP) Dec 19, 2008 German power giant RWE signed a deal on Friday with Bulgaria's state-owned National Electricity Company to help finance and run a new four-billion-euro nuclear power plant on the Danube. RWE was picked in October to become a strategic partner in the project by acquiring a 49-percent stake in the Belene Power Company, which will finance and run the plant near the northern town of Belene. The German company was preferred to Belgian utility firm Electrabel, owned by France's GDF Suez, which was also shortlisted for the stake. RWE kept postponing the signing of the final agreement, initially planned for the end of October, as protests by German environmentalists against the Belene project divided the company's supervisory board. The Bulgarian government had allowed RWE to split its share with Electrabel as long as NEC retained its 51-percent majority stake in the plant. But Gerd Jaeger, member of RWE's executive board, said Friday that the company was still negotiating whether to give Electrabel a 24.5-percent share in the project, adding that the decision would be taken by early 2009. The 2,000-megawatt two-reactor plant is to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport with French Areva and German Siemens as subcontractors. Construction on the plant was to begin in mid-2009, with its first reactor expected to be operational by January 2014 and the second a year later. Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov hailed the long-delayed project on Friday as "extremely important" for restoring Bulgaria's role as a major electricity exporter in the Balkans. "Belene will strengthen energy security in Bulgaria and in the Balkans... as without reliable, clean and cheap energy, the region could not sustain its current growth and further development," Dimitrov said. Bulgaria used to be the main electricity supplier to the rest of the Balkan countries. But it was forced to slash exports after agreeing to close down four out of six operational reactors at its sole nuclear plant at Kozloduy in late 2006, in order to join the EU. Related Links Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Science, Nuclear Technology Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
New cost overrun for Finnish nuclear plant: Areva
Paris (AFP) Dec 19, 2008French nuclear technology group Areva announced Friday a new cost overrun for a major project in Finland to build a nuclear power plant amid deteriorating relations with Finnish partner TVO. |
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