Bulgaria's centre-right Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov decided at a regular meeting on April 11 2012 to construct a seventh reactor at the Kozloduy nuclear power station.

The new facility will be designed and built on a market basis without any government guarantees and without using taxpayers' money, Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said, quoted by news agency BTA.

The installation of the new reactor will take several years. The idea to install a seventh unit at the power plant came after the Bulgarian Cabinet officially decided on March 28 2012 to abandon the project for second nuclear power plant at Belene.

Bulgaria plans to pay for the first reactor of Belene nuclear power station, local news agency Focus said. Building of this reactor has already started and it is expected to be ready in October. The country has to pay about 140 million euro more for the unit.

Russian companies providing the equipment for Bulgaria’s cancelled Belene construction project have started calculating their loss.

The loss for the Objedinennye Mashinostroitelnye Zavody (United Heavy Machinery Plants), controlled by Gazprombank, may top two billion roubles. The Silovie Masini and ZiO-Podolsk companies have pending orders, too.

Sofia promised to buy only one nuclear reactor. If Bulgaria does not pay for the rest of the orders, Rosatom will have to shift the equipment to other nuclear power plants, an option, which the company has already applied earlier, Russian Kommersant daily said, quoted by Focus.

The agreement on the construction of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power station at Belene was signed between Russia’s Atomstroyexport and Bulgaria’s national grid operator NEK in 2008.