Serbia Willing to Join Bulgaria's Belene NPP

Serbia is in favor of participating in the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant in Bulgaria, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic has told the Bulgarian National Radio.

He has pointed out that the increased number of high-level meetings between Bulgarian and Serbian officials is a solid proof that the two countries are important partners with common interests with regard to nuclear energy, the South Stream gas pipeline and the Danube Strategy.

"If a contract is to be signed on Belene, Serbia will be in favor of the project. However, we still need more information about the technological and economical details," Djelic has said on Friday.

On Monday, Serbia's participation in the project to build a second Bulgarian nuclear power plant located in Belene was declared unfeasible by Serbia's Environment Minister, Oliver Dulic who, added that Serbia should not commit to NPPs before using all renewable energy sources and their huge potential.

In November, Bulgaria initially offered Serbia a share of 1-2%. Afterwards, Serbia was said to have asked for 5-10% of the plant.

On November 30, an agreement for Belene was signed in Sofia between the Russian State Corporation "Rosatom" and the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEK) to establish a company to study the project. The Finish Fortum has a symbolic stake of 1% while the French Altran Technologies is expected to join the project.

According to the signed documents, Bulgaria will have 51% of the NPP, but other investors would later have the opportunity to increase their shares to 25% in the expense of the Russian and the Bulgarian ones.