Bulgaria has opened the process of inviting investors for its stalled nuclear power plant in the town of Belene, on the Danube River border with Romania.
The Energy Ministry said in a statement on March 11 that the deadline for applications was in three months and the process was expected to be completed within a year. Potential minority shareholders are also invited to state their interest, the statement said.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during a visit to Sofia last week that Russia's nuclear energy firm, Rosatom, was ready to invest in the project.
Also last week, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev told Bulgarian media that the Belene nuclear plant could not be completed without Rosatom's participation.
The German-French consortium Framatom, U.S.-based General Electric, China's CNC, and Korean Hydro & Nuclear Power have also expressed interest.
The government in Sofia had stopped work at Belene in 2012 because of a lack of funding.
Environmentalists have voiced strong opposition to the Belene project.
Bulgaria's only operating nuclear plant, the Russian-built Kozloduy, is also located on the Danube. It has two 1,000-megawatt generators.
