27.04.2009
On November 17th-18th, 2008 the Third European Summit was held in Sofia. Within the framework of the Summit a discussion on the subject of nuclear power engineering revival took place, and the characteristics of new generation nuclear power plants, including Belene NPP under construction in Bulgaria, were discussed. Statesmen and experts of Slovenia, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Great Britain, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary and other countries presented their reports at the Summit. Chief Executive Director of the National Electric Company of RB Ljubomir Velkov addressed the Summit from the side of Bulgaria. Among the subjects touched upon – nuclear safety standards, secrecy and terrorism, licensing and regulation, world prices on electricity, overcoming the lag in nuclear power engineering field, nuclear waste disposal and the issues of NPP decommissioning. The Forum Participants showed keen interest in main characteristics and peculiarities of Belene NPP which is constructed on a “turn-key basis” by the Russian company Atomstroyexport. The project presentation was held by the Head of Atomstroyexport JSC Representation in Bulgaria Sergey Maklakov. Reference. In 2005 the tender for construction of Belene NPP was announced. It was won by the Russian company Atomstroyexport. On January 18th, 2008 signing of the Contract Agreement for Belene NPP construction took place in presence of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the President of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov, between Atomstroyexport JSC and the National Electric Company of RB. The cost of the works under the contract makes nearby 4 billion Euros. Belene NPP is the Russian-European project in which Atomstroyexport participates together with the European consortium CARSIB (AREVA-Siemens). In 2007 the Russian design “AES-92" applied for Belene NPP was recognized complying all technical EUR requirements to the light water reactors of new generation. Certification of the design once more demonstrated a high level of reliability and safety of the future Belene NPP.
