SOFIA, Bulgaria, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The European Commission has approved Bulgaria’s plan to build a second nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube River using Russian-made reactors.
The EC had to give a final approval for the Belene nuke plant as an agreement on its construction was signed last year before Bulgaria joined the European Union in January, the Sofia News Agency reported Tuesday.
The Bulgarian NEK power grid operator will own 51 percent of a mixed company to build and operate the Belene plant, north of the town of Pleven in northwestern Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is to open an international tender for the remaining 49 percent of shares in the future company.
Having received EC approval, Bulgaria is entitled to apply for a $430 million loan from the EU’s Euratom agency.
The Belene plant, whose total construction cost is estimated at $5.7 billion, will use two 1,000-megawatt, light-water reactors to be built by Russia’s Atomstroyexport.
Bulgaria’s only operating Kozloduy nuclear plant with six Soviet-type reactors, on the Danube west of Belene, had to close its four reactors to meet EU standards. The two operating reactors of the Kozloduy plant are of more modern design.
