Construction on the plant, which will have two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors made in Russia, is to begin in 2009, the Bulgarian SNA news agency reported Monday.

Bulgaria's state-run NEK power grid will own 51 percent of the shares in the plant, and the rest will be sold to leading European companies, the agency said.

The new plant will be at Belene. Bulgaria's only existing nuclear power plant is at Kozloduy, also on the Danube, west of Belene.