Bulgaria's national power grid operator said Wednesday it will pick a contractor for the Belene nuclear power station in the first half of September. Russia's AtomStroyExport and Czech consortium Skoda Alliance vying for the contract.

The Bulgarian energy minister said a month ago that the cost and hand-over targets of the bids were unsatisfactory and asked the candidates to improve them. NEK said the 2 candidates have complied and the updated offers are being reviewed. The commission in charge of the procedure should make a recommendation in the first half of September.

AtomStroyExport and Skoda Alliance both propose to build 2 1000MW VVER reactors. The Czech tie-in is marketing a Temelin-type reactors fine-tuned by Westinghouse of the U.S.. The Russian outfit has proposed a more sophisticated version of the VVER reactor which is no longer in production. AtomStroyExport has cited Areva and Siemens as likely subcontractors. The Russian company is also ready to buy the equipment delivered to the Belene site before the project was put on hold due to environmental considerations in the early 1990s. AtomStroyExport has picked Russia's Gazprombank to package financially the project with guarantees from the government. The Czech candidate has proposed financing from a consortium of lenders led by Citibank.

Source: Dnevnik a.m.