German Utitility RWE to buy 49% Stake in New Bulgarian Nuclear Plant.

[NNadir]

German utility company RWE signed the deal to buy 49 per cent in Bulgaria's second power plant at Belene on the Danube on December 19, its board deciding to go ahead with the project despite domestic opposition from environmental activists.

The stake could be split with Belgium's Electrabel, the other finalist in the tender organised by Bulgaria's power grid operator NEK to pick a buyer for the minority stake in Belene. "There is a common understanding on all major issues with Elecrabel. We hope to reach an agreement to split the stake within weeks," Antonius Voss, chief financial officer at RWE Power, said after the signing ceremony, as quoted by Reuters.

RWE agreed to pay 1.275 billion euro for the stake, which could rise to two billion euro by the time the power station is scheduled to be finished in 2014. The money will be used to start construction in 2009, but NEK has found it hard to raise the rest of the needed funding, with banks reluctant to lend money to a project that has caused such strong opposition.

The credit crunch and the spiralling costs of construction are two other factors that will make it difficult for BNP Paribas, picked by NEK to arrange the loans, to secure the funds. Bulgaria's contract with Russian Atomstroyexport, whose technology will be used to build the two 1000MW reactors, set the construction costs at just under four billion euro, but analysts have warned that the final costs could rise to as high as seven billion euro.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/rwe-seals-bulgarian-nuclear-power-plant-deal/id_33714/catid_67

When completed each reactor at Belene will produce 40% more energy than the entire nation of Denmark currently produces from wind energy.