Firms ink deal to build 4bn euro Bulgaria nuclear plant

(SOFIA) - Russian company Atomstroyexport signed an agreement on Friday with French and German subcontractors to build a new nuclear power plant in northern Bulgaria, a statement said.

A consortium featuring French giant Areva and Germany's Siemens, CARSIB, was chosen by the Russian company to design the new facility's control and operations, safety, conditioning and electric systems, Atomstroyexport said.

The Bulgarian government and the Russian company signed a four billion euro (five billion dollars) deal in January to build two 1,000-magawatt pressurised water reactors of third near Belene, on the Danube.

Workers have already started tearing down some old concrete reactor containment structures at the site, built in the late 1980s when Bulgaria first launched the project.

This will open the way for the launch of construction of the first reactor in March 2009 to be completed in December 2013. Work on the second reactor was to be launched in March 2010, making it operational in June 2014, company estimates showed.

Bulgaria's state-owned National Electricity Company has also chosen German power giant RWE to help finance and run the plant by acquiring a 49-percent stake in the new Belene Power Company.