The Cabinet decided to lift the moratorium on the Belene NPP project and submit it for vote to the National Assembly, bTV reported.
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced today that the project will be brought back. The reason is that last week, representatives of China's National Nuclear Corporation announced they were interested in building Belene.

There are two nuclear reactors on the site of the plant that the country has ordered from Russia years ago. So far, Bulgaria has invested BGN 3 billion in the project. Energy Minister Temenujka Petkova has announced that by the end of the year, the procedure for selecting a strategic investor for Belene NPP should have been launched if the National Assembly gave a mandate to do so. She specified that there is no provided government guarantee for the project or a commitment to buy the electricity produced.

"Let's see how the market will react to such an opportunity. All the talks that have been held so far and all companies interested in the Belene NPP will have the opportunity to participate", said Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev.

"We will have a choice between the best offer, if there are, for example, 4-5 companies that are interested. It is absurd for this decision today to be introduced into the coordinate system of some geopolitical emotions. We have Bulgarian reactors that are Bulgarian property and we have to find the best solution", added Donchev.

He stressed that there are no political nuances in this decision. Such a solution is not directed at any sector in the Bulgarian energy sector, it is not against the coal-fired power plants or against the renewable energy sources. If the market reacts, if it shows that in the decades ahead a new power has a future, it will be built. The project will either be realized as a market project or will not be realized, Donchev is categorical.

Market means without a state guarantee, relying on the fact that the price of the produced electricity will be bought on the market. If the state together with the strategic investor who offers the best conditions and is capable to build this facility, it will sell the electricity on this market, added Donchev, quoted by BGNES.