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Bulgaria, Russia to sign nuclear contract this week
Sofia (AFP) Jan 15, 2008 Bulgaria and Russia are to sign a contract for the construction of a nuclear plant later this week during the visit here of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Bulgarian minister said Tuesday. "We will sign on January 18 an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build two pressurized water reactors of 1,000 megawatts each," Economy and Energy minister Petar Dimitrov told a news conference. "The contract will be implemented by Atomstroiexport. A joint venture between Areva (of France) and Siemens (of Germany) will be the sub-contractor," Dimitrov said, putting the total value of the contract at 4.0 billion euros (5.9 billion dollars). A letter of intent to build the plant at Belene on the River Danube was signed in November 2006. The new facility is designed to compensate for lost capacity at Bulgaria's only nuclear plant at Kozloduy, which was partially mothballed for safety reasons ahead of Bulgaria's European Union accession in 2007. Construction on the new plant is planned to begin in the second half of 2008 and the first of the plant's two 1,000-megawatt reactors will be operational in 2013. The second will follow a year later, Dimitrov said. Dimitrov rejected criticism from opposition parties that Bulgaria was becoming too dependent on Russia for its energy. "This is a European project," he said. "The reactors are Russian but their operational systems will be supplied by Areva and Siemens, so (they will be) European," Dimitrov argued. In December, the European Commission gave its official go-ahead to the project. Later this year, Bulgaria's National Electricity Company is expected to select a strategic investor for a 49-percent stake in the plant, itself retaining the other 51 percent. According to a recent opinion poll cited Tuesday by the future director of the Belene plant, Yordan Georgiev, some 79 percent of Bulgarians support the project. Related Links Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Science, Nuclear Technology Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Australia reverses plan to sell uranium to India
Sydney (AFP) Jan 15, 2008The new Australian government will scrap a landmark deal to sell uranium to India for its nuclear energy programme, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith indicated Tuesday. |
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