Rosatom

A debt settlement deal was signed by Bulgaria's state-owned National Electric Company, or NEC, and the Russian nuclear producer Atomstroyexport on Wednesday, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry announced.

An arbitration court in Geneva ordered the NEC to pay the Russian firm 601,617,133 euros for the production of two nuclear reactors for the cancelled Belene power plant.

Bulgaria has committed to a fast-track payment of the debt on the Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) project, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova has said.

In return, Atomstroyexport, the company which was involved in the Belene NPP, will not demand interest generated on the money.

There was only one good aspect of the diplomatic crisis between Russia and Turkey that erupted after the downing of a Russian war plane by Turkish jets on the Syrian border nearly a year ago: The possible suspension of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project. 

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office has formally indicted two former state officials over their move to sign an unfavourable contract with Russian company Atomstroyexport in 2007.

The document, under which Bulgaria procures equipment for the Belene nuclear power plant (NPP) project, was signed without the government's consent.

The law proposed by the Bulgarian government on Tuesday, was adopted on a first reading with the support of 132 out of 140 lawmakers on Wednesday.

It allows the state electric company NEC to receive state aid in the form of an interest free loan and to use it to pay off its debts to Russia's state nuclear company Atomstroyexport.

Russian and Iranian firms began work on Sept. 10 on two additional reactors at Iran's nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast at Bushehr, the project manager said.

The plant has been a bone of contention with Iran's Gulf Arab neighbors, even after a deal limiting its nuclear ambitions was signed with major powers in July last year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have expressed joint support for Russia's Rosneft increasing oil supplies to Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sept. 4, as reported by Reuters. 

The US-Russia rivalry over setting up Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in India has intensified in recent times.

Turkish construction firm Cengiz is in talks about buying up to 49 percent of the $20 billion Akkuyu nuclear power plant being built by Russia's Rosatom, a source familiar with the matter said on April 27.

Russia's state-owned Rosatom has put 49 percent of its share in the to-be-built Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey on sale after obstacles in financing emerged with the economic problems in Russia, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on April 27.