The caretaker government signed a contract for surveying the construction of new capacities of the VII and VIII blocks of the "Kozloduy" NPP. It was solemnly signed in the granite hall of the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Glavchev, the Minister of Energy and the heads of "Westinghouse" and "Hyundai".
"This contract is not for building the capacities themselves. This is the company created for the purpose of building the two new units at the Kozloduy NPP site. This contract is expected, there is nothing new, after its execution we will receive the necessary information about the budget for the two blocks, construction deadlines. This contract is important in order to make the final investment decision, I assume that it will be completed within a year and a half", said the former Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov in the studio of "The Day ON AIR".
In his words, the construction of the two blocks will take at least 101-5 years. And practice shows that these terms are being extended.
"Most projects go over budget and over time. My personal experience, when we were building a power plant in Slovakia - because of political friction, the budget and deadlines were exceeded many times", said Hristov.
The contract is for the construction of the two blocks using the new AP 1000 technology. The first such block was soon completed in the USA.
"The first construction is always much more complicated and expensive. This is a site where 10,000 people work. I have no doubt about the security. The US would not make any compromises with security if it was checked there - I have no doubt", the former energy minister is categorical.
On the air of Bulgaria ON AIR, he added that it is also necessary to secure the project from specialists.
"From now on, the question is to know what kind of people we will hire, where the funding will come from, which should go parallel to the engineering activity. We are talking about a budget of tens of billions - the optimistic forecasts are for 15 billion," Rosen Hristov specified.
The former energy minister does not rule out the possibility that "Bulgargaz" to lead to bankruptcy.
"There is gas ordered according to potential consumption and if the market shrinks and the gas we need to buy we will not be able to deliver it... I don't know if it is being deliberately led to bankruptcy. Private traders benefit, no one looks at the whole picture and no one asks this question, everyone says - state enterprises are like part of the state. But they function as commercial enterprises. It is forbidden for the state to intervene for benefit or detriment. It is important that Europe intervenes and these problems are solved", urged Hristov.