OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2009. Presently, the Belene branch of Atomstroyexport employs 75 specialists, who are organizing the construction process. The video communication between Moscow and Belene will help the parties to solve the problems concerning their current activities and to effectively control the construction process.

The conference was chaired by Vice President of Atomstroyexport CJSC Gennady Tepkyan.

Such conferences will be held on a regular basis for immediate resolution and coordination of emerging problems.

Note

The Belene Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant currently under construction 3 km from Belene and 11 km from Svishtov in Pleven Province, northern Bulgaria, near the Danube River. It is supposed to substitute four outdated VVER-440 V230 reactors of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant.

In late Oct 2006 the offer of the Russian Atomstroyexport, the French Areva and the German Siemens using third-generation VVER-1000/V-446B reactors was approved by the National Electric Company. The offer was selected due to the highest safety level guaranteed by several new independent active and passive safety systems, as well as the option for Atomstroyexport to buy back the old unit supplied in the 1980s. Another reason was the 60-year operation term. According to the Atomstroyexport president, the first unit would be in operation by 2013 and the second a year later. On Dec 7 2008 the European Commission gave its favorable opinion to the NPP, saying that it met all requirements of articles 41 to 44 of the Euratom Treaty. A favorable opinion of the EC is one of the requirements for a Euratom loan.

The total cost of the project is 3.997bln EUR.

Atomstroyexport OJSC is the leading Russian organization implementing contracts for the construction of nuclear power plants abroad. After the launch of Tianwan NPP in China, the company continues building Kudankulam NPP in India, Bushehr NPP in Iran and Belene NPP in Bulgaria.