Bulgaria unexpectedly refused to sell Ukraine the Russian nuclear reactors for the "Belene" NPP. What is behind this decision and is it possible that the Ukrainian "Khmelnytskyi" NPP will be completed at all? DW clarifies the reasons.
The two Russian-made nuclear reactors were to be used for the completion of units 3 and 4 of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (Khmelnytskyi). For this purpose, Ukraine had to purchase them from Bulgaria, which, however, unexpectedly refused to sell them.
Bulgaria's arguments
Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, who announced the news, argued with the need for nuclear energy in Bulgaria to develop, as well as the global increase in electricity prices. "Bulgaria has both the infrastructure and expertise to develop this sector with national forces, and selling the reactors would be a serious mistake," Zafirov pointed out. He specified that this was a collective decision of the ruling coalition, which has yet to be finally approved by the country's parliament.
That is probably why the Ukrainian side has not yet received the official position of the Bulgarian government on this issue. The Ministry of Energy in Kiev confirmed to DW that "Ukraine is interested in purchasing equipment for the completion of the two power units of the Khmelnytskyi NPP".
Kiev wants to complete the Khmelnytskyi NPP in order to compensate for the loss of power after the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP by the Russians. The Ukrainian Energy Ministry believes that purchasing reactors from Bulgaria "will be many times cheaper and faster than building a new nuclear power plant from scratch", since the units of "Khmelnytskyi" are designed for VVER-1000 reactors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also repeatedly supported the completion of the Khmelnytskyi NPP and the purchase of power units from Bulgaria.
Is Bulgaria trying to raise the price?
Ukraine and Bulgaria have been negotiating since 2023. for the purchase of two VVER-1000 reactors, which Rosatom delivered for the Bulgarian Belene NPP. Its construction was suspended in 1990, and in the summer of 2023, the Bulgarian parliament gave permission for the sale of the reactors, setting a deadline for this - until March 13, 2025. However, no official documents were signed until its expiration.
Ukrainian nuclear energy expert Olga Kosharnaya suggests that the sale did not take place due to the change of power in Bulgaria after the elections in October 2024. "Throughout the past year, the Bulgarian opposition was against the decision of the previous Bulgarian government to sell these reactors. It is significant that when the delegation of "Energoatom" was in Bulgaria in May 2024 to inspect the condition of the equipment, there were protests", she says in an interview with DW.
The chairman of the energy committee in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Andriy Gerus is of a similar opinion. "The current ruling coalition also includes socialists, and they have quite pro-Russian views. I think their position has influenced the situation. Deputy Prime Minister Zafirov is also a socialist", he explained in an interview with DW.
In turn, the first deputy chairman of the energy committee, Oleksiy Kucherenko, believes that by refusing to sell the reactors, Bulgaria is trying to raise their price. "I have the feeling that they have realized that this is a normal commodity. And that its price is no longer 600 million dollars, but, for example, 700 million dollars. So they are bargaining. I don't know if this is normal, but in general it's like this everywhere in the world - everyone bargains," he added.
Bulgaria is interested in data centers
Meanwhile, GERB leader Boyko Borisov said that the country should try to use the two reactors for a project related to the construction of data centers together with the US and Great Britain, before agreeing to sell them to Ukraine. "I want us to do something with the British, with the Americans, this will be something significant. If it works out - good. If not - we will sell them," BTA quoted him as saying.
Borisov explained that "representatives of three large international funds", which have a strong interest in the construction of data processing centers, have contacted Bulgaria and asked it to wait with the decision to sell the reactors to Ukraine - not before it has talked about it with US President Donald Trump. According to Borisov, delegations from the United States have already arrived in Bulgaria to see the reactors, and their supposed perfect condition was evidenced by the interest of Ukraine.
Bulgarian reactors - the only option for completing “Khmelnytsky“
Power units No. 3 and No. 4 at “Khmelnytsky“, which according to the state company “Energoatom” are 80 and 25 percent complete, respectively, are designed for the same type of reactors that Bulgaria has, Alexander Kharchenko, an energy expert and director of the Center for Energy Research, told DW. “Since we will not buy them from Russia, of course, the only option was Bulgaria. There is no other possible supplier of such reactors. So we will either have to start building from scratch or completely change the design. And that will be much more expensive,” he explains. Currently, the prices for building a single power unit from scratch range from $7 billion to $11 billion, Kharchenko added.
At the same time, it is not very clear how much it would cost to complete the plant with the two Bulgarian power units, since there is no updated feasibility study, Kosharnaya told the newspaper. "The previous feasibility study, conducted in 2017, determined the cost of construction at over 76 billion Ukrainian hryvnias. Now this amount is clearly different - at least 200 billion hryvnias," she notes. The Verkhovna Rada's Anti-Corruption Commission has criticized the fact that an analysis of the possibility of using other types of reactors has not been conducted. On the other hand, the purchase of these reactors has been repeatedly criticized by experts, since Bulgaria does not have all the components for them.
Is it worth completing the Khmelnytskyi NPP?
Therefore, Bulgaria's decision not to sell the reactors is positive for Ukraine, Kosharnaya believes. "I was hoping for this when I read about the political battles in Bulgaria", she says, adding that now is not the time to build new nuclear power plants. According to "Ukrenergo", however, there is a capacity deficit in Ukraine, after all thermal power plants were bombed. The solution that Kosharnaya proposes is "first of all, to develop capacities for the production and storage of electricity from natural gas, which would be turned on only during peak consumption, that is, in the morning and evening hours". And after the end of the war, consider building a fifth and sixth reactor, but from scratch, using technology from, for example, the American company “Westinghouse“: “This will be better than using Bulgarian reactors without the general contractor – the Russian reactor manufacturer Rosatom”, she says.
And the best option, according to Kosharnaya, would be to build small reactors instead of large power units. “On April 10, for example, a license was issued in Canada to build a small reactor, the commissioning of which is planned for 2029. Currently, there is such a trend in the world. First of all, these reactors are more modern, they take into account the latest achievements of science and technology. In addition, small reactors are cheaper and more maneuverable, they have better protection systems. We have time to see how this reactor will work in Canada,” the Ukrainian nuclear energy expert also tells DW.