Contractor of NPP Belene Selected

On October 30, 2006, at its session the NEK Board of Directors, after having considered the Evaluation report of the Evaluation Committee, took a decision on the Procedure on awarding a public procurement order for design, construction and commissioning of Units 1 and 2 of NPP Belene. The Board of Directors awarded the procurement to Atomstroyexport with variant À92 for construction of 2x1000 MW light-water reactor units at the site of Belene. The offer submitted by Skoda Alliance was ranked second.
The offers were evaluated based on the criteria defined in the documentation for participation in the procedure, current methodologies for technical and economic evaluation of bid for nuclear power plants developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as specialized risk assessment software package.

The main advantages of the selected variant À92 (two B466 reactor units) are as follows:

a Significant margins in the safety characteristics and features, such as secondary containment, 4 train safety channels and extended capacity of the passive safety elements
a Lower risk of unforeseen extension of the construction schedule, of licensing complications, or of early necessity of safety related improvements
a Use of newest technologies and longer operational life-time (60 years)
a VVER reactor of third generation being best recognized in the European Union.