/ world today news/ The ill-fated nuclear project continues to swallow taxpayers’ money while politicians play by trial and error
Prime Minister Borissov often has unexpected insights. The “muse” also followed him last month during the investment forum for the Western Balkans in London, when he shared his latest idea for the Belene NPP – the project should grow into a common cause of the countries of our peninsula, being supported by European funding.
“Bulgaria has a very well-developed electricity transmission system and we are currently exporting electricity through Serbia to Greece and Macedonia… (and we) have two nuclear reactors that have been paid for and delivered. We have paid 4 billion for them and they are sitting in the boxes… My today the idea came… for a Balkan project and that this could be a wonderful solution for our Belene NPP with European funding, with all of us as shareholders,” announced Borissov to the astonished listeners in London. He just forgot to point out that Bulgaria has already built the site for the “Balkan” nuclear power plant in Belene, for which BGN 1.38 billion was spent.
There’s nothing wrong with ideas and dreams, of course. But it is bad when a prime minister constantly changes his dreams, throws away his ideas like used handkerchiefs and contradicts himself.
In 2010, Boyko Borisov was convinced that “Belene NPP” is “extremely important for Bulgaria” and that “it can become one of the most significant and large projects both in the Balkans and in Europe”. In 2011 d. he continued to support the project “with all his heart”. During an interview, when asked if Bulgaria could pay the Russians for the finished reactor and install it at the site of the Kozloduy NPP, Borisov reacted sharply:
“This is not a can – take it and take it to Kozloduy
Do you know how many years of work there are to redo this site and install a new reactor there?” And when asked whether, with the “Belene” NPP, Bulgaria is not becoming even more energy dependent on Russia, the prime minister replied: “What kind of dependence, when you have cheap electricity and your economy works? The fifth and sixth units at the Kozloduy NPP are Russian. Do they have influence? Do not have. We spend our electricity – the cheapest in Europe, and it’s good for us, and we sell and earn money”.
This was his position until February 5, 2012. Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Sofia and it became clear that during her visit the topic of Bulgaria’s “energy independence” was discussed. And something in the prime minister’s heart broke…
A little later, Borisov surprisingly announced that he had ordered a halt to the construction of the Belene NPP. In March 2012, he was already giving interviews as a staunch opponent of both the project and the energy friendship with Moscow. “During my administration, I will not build a Bulgarian-Russian headquarters in Belene,” he vowed to TV7. Then Borisov made his “stellar discovery” that “there is one goal, one hole in Belene”. And he told BNT that he requested that the finished reactor for Belene be sent to the Kozloduy NPP. And because he was reminded that the reactor does not become less Russian if it is moved from one site to another, the prime minister “competently” explained: “First, we will change the turbine, second, there will be fuel diversification.”
Meanwhile, various news about mythical candidates for participation in the ill-fated nuclear project came and went. An American investor has expressed interest in participating in the “Belene” NPP, announced in 2012 the then line minister Traicho Traikov. The reactors may be sold to India or Iran, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova claimed in June 2016. Companies from Europe are showing interest in the privatization of the “Belene” NPP project, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev said in July of the same year. Representatives of the China National Nuclear Corporation have confirmed readiness to participate in the Belene NPP, the government press office reported on December 4, 2016. Days later, a new press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came, according to which the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China showed interest in financing the project . Information was also released “from informed sources” that the French Veolia and EDF were not indifferent to the Belene NPP.
The truth is that
the rulers simply do not know what to do with the “golden” reactors
– costing billions to the Bulgarian taxpayers and hidden in boxes in Belene. Looking for a buyer? Foreign investors are obviously a utopia – unless the state becomes a guarantor and promises high prices for buying electricity from the Belene NPP. And the government does not dare and should not give such guarantees, because we are a market economy. The only one who would take them is the one who produced them – the Russians, and at a very low price. We have already performed this exercise – with the older “Belene” equipment. Even the BAS report on the nuclear project states that such an option is bad. And using the site in Kozloduy is not possible – the reactors were designed for Belene and, as Borisov himself once explained, they cannot be moved “like canisters”.
The last saving thought of the Bulgarian Prime Minister for the “Belene” NPP – for a “Balkan project” is currently only supported by Macedonia. Borisov talks a lot about “European funding”, but it is not clear what he means. Brussels does not lend money for nuclear plants, and it is doubtful that the Balkan countries are ready to become shareholders in a venture in which no one else wants to invest.
Worst of all, the mistakes and sins of a series of governments are not only costing us the taxpayers billions, but also racking up more money. The “Naked Belene” continues to absorb state money – because of the unavoidable costs of storing the equipment and conserving the site.
It does not appear that the rulers are worried about this. The opposition also lasts. Probably because they are equally badass. And although political irresponsibility leads to a gigantic waste of funds, there are no guilty parties and no one has gone to jail. This impunity, like nothing, will give birth to new “goals” – twins of “Belene NPP”.
#Borisov #woke #frogs #Gyola #Belene
