After at the end of 2016 Bulgaria paid what it owed to the Russian side for equipment produced for the stopped project for a second nuclear plant at Belene, this week it was reported that the two nuclear units will arrive to the country in April. In the summer turbines for the two Belene units will also be delivered and it would be good if the Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompania made a decision about what to do with this equipment until then.

In mid-December last year the government decided to task the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) to prepare an analysis whether Bulgaria actually needed the Belene NPP. Two days ago, Minister of Energy, Temenuzhka Petkova, announced that an agreement for preparing an analysis would be signed exactly with BAS in the coming week. In December it became clear that the government expected the analysis to examine the possibility of the project to be realized without direct or indirect participation of the state and without government guarantees or long-term contracts for the purchase of electricity. The executive power hopes for an analysis that would confirm its idea that a new nuclear power plant should be built on a purely commercial basis without financial involvement of the state.

Some time ago the "Borissov" Cabinet did not exclude the possibility of nuclear equipment for Belene to be sold to Iran. But whether because the idea was not implemented or because of other reasons, in recent months the cabinet made it clear that it did not consider the delay of the project as a cancellation and held talks with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Nuclear Corporation. The Ministry of Energy said that there were other players interested in the project, too, but did not name them because there was no agreement on their part.

It is curious why the executive power would commission the analysis to a scientific rather than experts department, where until recently there was sharp controversy over financing. Latest developments suggest that it is not the Belene project that depends so much on the analysis of BAS, but it is the future of nuclear energy of Bulgaria as a whole. Such an analysis would be needed for a decision to be taken after the parliamentary elections by a new government.

English: Alexander Markov