Brussels Confirms: Restart of Belene NPP Needs a New Euro Assessment

The European Commission has confirmed that the resumption of Belene NPP after shutdown in 2012 needs to be reassessed as to whether it complies with European rules and whether it complies with the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom Treaty) and possibly with the project to get approval again. This was answered by Brussels on questions of "Democratic Bulgaria", put by its MEP Svetoslav Malinov in September, the party announced on Thursday.

During the discussion of the need to restart the nuclear-power project by attracting a strategic investor to it, a number of nuclear experts have warned that it will need a new assessment by Brussels. Among the reasons were the changes to the nuclear safety requirements following the accident in the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, caused by a tsunami. The Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency also acknowledged that a new EC permit would be needed, but said it would be formal and necessary because of the possible change of the investor in the project, which is currently the National Electric Company (NEC).

The robust advancement of the project, which has a substantial part of the necessary nuclear equipment and a number of regulatory permits, is mentioned by the government as an advantage and an opportunity for its rapid realization. The government's statement is that there are no regulatory barriers to the project, but it does not seem to be the case.

After a two-year procedure, NEK received approval for Belene NPP in Brussels in December 2007 when the European Commission announced that it had "given a favorable opinion on the initiative, as required by the Euratom Treaty." According to the Commission's assessment, the selected project for Belene NPP includes...