Bulgaria uncertain over new reactor

Europe’s atomic energy anxiety finds Bulgaria hesitating over plans to get a second nuclear plant, in Belene, in the north. The government is concerned about safety and costs.

Russian reactor builders Rosatom have been visiting Sofia to move slow negotiations along.

They said: “Safety is our first commitment. We need to make the plant work flawlessly for the next 60 years.”

But a Greenpeace environmentalist in the country, Petko Kovachev, said: “Bulgaria should put an end to its nuclear ambitions in the immediate future and make commitments to green, alternative sources of energy. We have a written strategy showing Bulgaria could become entirely green by 2050.”

Two Soviet-era nuclear reactors at the Kozloduy plant already supply about a third of Bulgaria’s power needs. It closed four reactors here as a condition for joining the European Union in 2007.

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