The Parliament of Bulgaria decided to extend by six months the deadline given to the government for negotiations on the sale of two Russian nuclear reactors and auxiliary equipment to Ukraine.
Authorities in Sofia received the reactors from Russia’s Atomstroyexport more than six years ago, but they were already unusable, because the country had given up on building the Belene nuclear power plant.
The reactors are currently stored near Belene awaiting sale.
Bulgaria has been negotiating the equipment sale with Ukraine for almost two years, with parliament obliging the government to conclude the deal at a price of at least EUR 600 million, the same as the Bulgarian National Electricity Company paid to Russia’s Atomstroyexport.
Experts from the Ukrainian nuclear plant operator Energoatom arrived in Bulgaria to inspect the equipment but Russia’s full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine affected the negotiation process.
Earlier this year, the European Commission acknowledged that a potential deal to sell Russian reactors could be financed with EU aid money to Ukraine.
During the allotted additional 180 days, the Bulgarian MPs plan to update the market assessment drafted last year and obtain the necessary approvals from Energoatom. (Ukrinform/Business World Magazine)