Bulgaria’s parliament has tasked the country’s energy minister with beginning negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart on the proposed sale of Russia-made nuclear island equipment designated for the suspended Belene nuclear power project.
While Ukraine’s president Volodymir Zelenskyi was on a state visit to Sofia on Thursday (6 July), a 155-strong majority of the 240-member National Assembly voted in favour of the proposal.
Bulgaria received equipment, including two reactor pressure vessel and steam generator sets, from Russia for the two-unit Belene project in 2018 after settling a Russian compensation claim to the International Court of Arbitration in 2016 for €620m ($675m) resulting from an earlier cancellation of the project in 2012.