Socialists Move for Repeal of Parliamentary Resolution Scrapping Belene N-Plant Project

Sofia, July 13 (BTA) - The BSP-Left Bulgaria Parliamentary Group Wednesday tabled a draft resolution repealing a March 29, 2012 National Assembly resolution on the abandonment of the construction of a nuclear power plant on the Belene site.

Construction for the original N-plant project at Belene (on the Danube, Northwestern Bulgaria) began back in 1987 and was suspended and revived several times until it was definitively scrapped as unaffordable by a Parliament-endorsed government decision in March 2012.

The Left also want the Government to be assigned to ensure the implementation of the project safeguarding the national interest and the Minister of Energy to brief the MPs on progress on a quarterly basis.

MP Tasko Ermenkov accused the two Boyko Borissov Cabinets of inconsistent policy towards the construction of the N-plant.

In his words, the idea to sell the equipment is "rather exotic because this is not a used car that can be sold anywhere, it requires a particular site and a particular project which are not available anywhere else in the world now."

He was referring to Prime Minister Borissov's idea to sell the reactor that was ordered to and built by Russia's AtomStroyExport for Belene but was never installed, and thus offset the 550 million euro that an Arbitration Court in Geneva recently ordered Bulgaria to pay the Russian contractor, representing the cost of the equipment.

Ermenkov argued that the only feasible solution is to complete the Belene N-Plant with a strategic investor, with the Bulgarian State keeping controlling interest and coming to terms with the Russian side.

Another option is to set up a joint venture, with the National Electricity Company (NEK) contributing its ownership of the reactor and the site as a non-cash asset, but the problem with the plant must be addressed on Bulgarian soil. The Left MP insisted that there is no alternative: either pooling the efforts in search of an exit strategy, or "debts to AtomStroyExport increasing daily by over 330,000 leva."

That is why BSP-Left Bulgaria urge the powerholders to start consultations with the opposition to look for a way out of the situation. "We want to extend a hand to the Government, to be part of this solution," Ermenkov pointed out. VI/LG

/СН/