BULGARIA INVITES TOSHIBA TO INVEST IN BELENE SITE

Bulgaria's parliamentary spokesperson Tsetska Tsacheva has invited Japanese company Toshiba to invest in building a new energy facility on the site of the scrapped Belene nuclear power plant.

Tsacheva, who leads a Bulgarian delegation to Japan, has proposed that Toshiba provide effective and energy saving technologies, an area where Bulgaria faces significant problems.

Bulgaria's government announced last week it has abandoned plans to build a new, 2000 megawatt nuclear power plant on the Danube River for which it has contracted Russian state firm Atomstroyexport.

The government has proposed that a gas-powered plant is built on the site in Belene.

Environmentalists had opposed the plant, which had first been proposed when Bulgaria was under communist rule.

The project however remains extremely popular among people from the small and poor town of Belene, who have pinned on it hopes for more jobs and higher living standards.

Originally two reactors were to have been built for the site by Russian company Atomstroyexport, and one of them has already been constructed.

The Bulgarian government has proposed that it is installed at the country's sole nuclear power plant of Kozloduy.

In the middle of last year Japanese company Toshiba announced it plans to continue its investments in the construction of a 10 MW solar park near the Southeastern Bulgarian town of Yambol.

The photovoltaic park will cost EUR 37.6 M and will be able to provide electricity for 2 000 households.

Instead of owning the solar park, Toshiba plans to sell it to local funds and other investors.