ICBC pledges loan for Belene Nuclear Power Plant Project

The Belene Nuclear Power Plant (Bulgarian: Атомна електроцентрала „Белене“) is a planned nuclear power plant 3 km from the town of Belene and 11 km from the town of Svishtov in Pleven Province, northern Bulgaria, near the Danube River. It was intended to substitute four VVER-440 V230 reactors of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant that were decommissioned as a prerequisite for Bulgaria to join the European Union. On June 11, 2010, the Bulgarian government announced that it would freeze indefinitely the planned construction of the Belene nuclear power plant because it was uncertain when the investment would be returned. Five months later, on December 2, 2010, a non-binding memorandum of understanding was signed between NEK EAD, Rosatom, Altran and Fortum, setting up a 6.3 bln. euro price on the power station, after months of unsuccessful talks on the cost and redeemability of the project itself. Further disagreement and the persistent demands of the Bulgarian government to lower the cost under 5.0 billion euro led to the termination of the project in March 2012. However, in late 2012 the opposition initiated a referendum petition which was signed by 1,385,283 people and the first national referendum in the history of modern Bulgaria was held on January 27, 2013. A majority of the people had voted ′Yes' to the construction of a new nuclear power plant, but despite that, the number of voters who attended the voting was too low for it to pass. The referendum passed the question further to the Parliament, which decided on February 27, 2013 to suspend it. In December 2017, after meetings with Bulgarian government officials, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) expressed interest to be included in the construction of the nuclear power plant. Then, in June 2018 the Bulgarian Parliament voted to abolish the moratorium on the construction of the power plant and in December 2019 Minister of Energy announced that Russia's Rosatom, China's CNNC, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co, a unit of EDF Energy, and General Electric, the five companies placed bids and had been selected as prospective strategic investors in the project.

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