“The attempts to build Belene NPP do not give sufficient economic justification to be able to attract investors,” said Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in answer to a question during a live Q&A stream on Facebook.

• Parliament mandates Energy Minister to start talks with Ukraine on the sale of equipment for Belene NPP

At the beginning of August this year, Bulgaria’s National Assembly mandated the energy minister to open negotiations with Ukraine on the sale of equipment from the Belene NPP project worth over EUR 511 million. In the prime minister’s words, it makes no sense for the equipment to just sit there when no investors can be found. Russia will be under EU sanctions over the attack against Ukraine for many years to come, Nikolay Denkov said, so working with Russia for building Belene is not an option.

PM Nikolay Denkov stated further that we shall continue to develop our nuclear energy, in reference to the negotiations with the American company Westinghouse on reactors for Kozloduy NPP, which “are able to reduce their capacity comparatively quickly which makes them very appropriate for combining with other environmental sources”.