Russia’s state nuclear holding Atomenergoprom assigned a EUR 82mn contract to Russia’s Izhora Plants to construct the two 1,000 MW reactors for the nuclear plant in the Danube town of Belene.  Izhora Plants are specialised in engineering, production, sale and servicing of equipment and machines for the nuclear and mining industries. Atomenergoprom controls AtomStroyExport, which has won the contract for building the EUR 4bn third-generation nuclear power plant in Belene. Two months ago, the Russians signed a partnership agreement with its main sub-contractor CARSIB, owned by France ’s Areva and Germany ’s Siemens, for building the plant. The first unit of the power producer should be supplied in 2011 and must start operations in 2014 while the second one in 2012 and 2015 respectively. The Germany energy firm RWE Power and the state-owned National Electricity Company (NEC), acting as power system operator in the country, signed an agreement for the setup of the company that will administer construction works and operate the plant in December. The state will control 51% of the project while RWE will own the remaining 49% but is planning to sign an agreement for transferring 24.5% of its stake to Belgium ’s Electrabel.