Why Bulgaria will not sell the Russian reactors of Ukraine
The arguments of Bulgaria
That is why the Ukrainian side has not yet received the official position of the Bulgarian government on this issue. The Ministry of Energy in Kiev confirmed to the SG that « Ukraine is interested in the purchase of equipment for the completion of the two energy units of the Himnitz NPP ».
Borisov returned from Germany with an offer for a gunpowder, also explained the reactors
Is Bulgaria trying to raise the price?
Ukrainian Nuclear Energy Expert Olga Koshariya suggests that the sale did not take place due to the change of power in Bulgaria after the October 2024 elections. « Throughout the past year, the Bulgarian opposition was against the decision of the previous Bulgarian government to sell these reactors. It is indicative that when the delegation of Energoatom was in Bulgaria in May 2024 to inspect the condition of the equipment, there were protests, » she said in a conversation with SG.
The chairman of the Energy Committee in the Supreme Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Andry Gerus is of a similar opinion. « The ruling coalition also includes the Socialists, and they have a lot of pro -Russian views. I think their position has influenced the situation. Deputy Prime Minister Zafirov is also a socialist, » he explained in a conversation with SG.
| In turn, the first deputy chairman of the Energy Committee, Olexiy Kunerko, believes that with the refusal to sell the reactors, Bulgaria is trying to raise their price. « I have the feeling that they have realized that this is a normal commodity. And that its price is no longer $ 600 million, but for example, $ 700 million. So they are bargaining. I don’t know if it’s normal, but in principle it is all over the world, » he says. |
With the suspended sale of the Belene NPP reactors, the BSP tried to hide that it did not shy away from Peevski’s support
Bulgaria is interested in data centers
Bulgarian reactors – the only option for finishing « Khmelnitsky »
Energy blocks № 3 and 4 in « Khmelnitski », which, according to the State Energoatom company, are completed respectively at 80 and 25 percent respectively, are designed for the same type of reactors that Bulgaria has, Alexander Kharchenko, an energy expert and director of the Energy Research Center, tells DV.
| « Since we will not buy them from Russia, of course, the only opportunity was Bulgaria. There is no other possible supplier of such reactors. So we will either have to start building from scratch, or to completely change the structure. And this will come out much more, » he explains. |
Currently, prices to build an energy block from scratch range from $ 7 to $ 11 billion, Kharchenko adds.
Atanas Zafirov: We agreed with Borisov not to sell the reactors for Belene NPP
At the same time, it is not very clear how much it would cost to complete the plant with the two Bulgarian energy blocks, as there is no updated feasibility survey, according to Koshariya.
« The previous feasibility study, done in 2017, determined the value of the construction of over 76 billion Ukrainian bracelets. This amount is now obviously different – at least 200 billion bracelets, » she notes. The Anti -Corruption Commission of the Supreme Rada has criticized that it is not a legal analysis of the possibility of using other types of reactors. On the other hand, the purchase of these reactors has been repeatedly criticized by experts, since Bulgaria does not have all components for them.
Is it worth it to build the Khmelnitski NPP?
The solution it offers is « first and foremost to develop power for the production and storage of natural gas electricity, which will only be included during peak consumption, that is, in the morning and evening hours. » And after the end of the war, to consider the construction of the fifth and sixth reactors, but from scratch, using technology, for example, from the US company Westinghouse: « It will be better than to use Bulgarian reactors without the general contractor – the Russian reactor manufacturer Rosatom, » she says.
And the best option, according to Koshernaya, would be to build small reactors instead of large energy blocks. « On April 10 in Canada, for example, a license was issued for the construction of a small reactor, the commissioning of which is planned for 2029. There is currently such a trend. In the first place, these reactors are more modern, they take into account the latest achievements of science and technology. For SG, Ukrainian Nuclear Energy Expert.
