Bulgaria: AREVA participates in the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant

Press release

November 21, 2008

The CARSIB* consortium composed of AREVA and Siemens, signed a contract agreement with the Russian Company Atomstroyexport (ASE) who will deliver two 1,000 MWe VVER-type Pressurized Water Reactors to the Bulgarian utility Nationalna Elektricheska Kompania (NEK).

CARSIB will provide the over all project and interface management for its scope. The consortium will deliver the safety-related part of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, the safety and the operational instrumentation and control (I&C) systems, electrical systems and components. It will further supply additional safety equipment such as hydrogen recombiners.

Commercial operation of the units is scheduled to start in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Luc Oursel, President and CEO of AREVA NP, underlines the company´s expertise for this project: “We will bring in the most modern, safe, proven technology and outstanding experience with VVER-type reactors to help make this plant an important pillar of Bulgaria’s future energy supply”.

AREVA and ASE have successfully cooperated during the modernization of units 3-6 at Kozloduy (Bulgaria). AREVA has already participated in the modernization and construction of a large number of VVER reactors, such as Bohunice (Slovakia), Dukovany (Czech Republic), Paks (Hungary) and Tianwan (China).

* Consortium AREVA NP – Siemens for Belene