OREANDA-NEWS. February 11, 2010. The technical council of the National Electric Company (NEK) of Bulgaria approved Belene NPP Technical Design. Atomstroyexport JSC is implementing the Project. Having reviewed the positive conclusions of independent Bulgarian and international expert organizations, the technical council of NEK approved Belene NPP Technical Design, including the Intermediate Safety Analysis Report (ISAR) and Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA). Belene NPP Technical Design was elaborated by the general designer, ОАО “Atomenergoproject”, jointly with ОАО EDO “Gidropress”, RNC “Kurchatov Institute”, ОАО “Power Machines”.

Atomstroyexport JSC expresses gratitude to the above companies for the work performed. “Our company possesses the design, which is in compliance with all established European standards”, - Gennady Tepkyan, Vice-president of Atomstroyexport JSC, said.

The next step will be obtaining Belene NPP construction permit from the Bulgarian Nuclear Safety Authorities (BNSA).

About the Project:

In 2005 the tender was invited for Belene plant construction, and Atomstroyexport JSC was awarded the contract. On the 18th of January 2008 the Contract Agreement for Belene NPP construction was signed between Atomstroyexport JSC and the National Electric Company of Bulgaria. Belene NPP design is characterized by a high safety level, increased life time of the main equipment, high installed capacity coefficient.

In 2007 VVER AES-92 Russian design successfully passed all stages of validation on compliance to EUR requirements for light water reactor facilities of new generation. Belene NPP design is the only Russian design approved by the European Commission. The design certification demonstrated once more a high reliability and safety level of the future nuclear power plant. The official opening of Belene NPP site took place on the 3d of September 2008.