According to sources near the project say the Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompania EAD (NEK EAD) has problems raising funding and the construction of Belene faces a delay.

The Bulgaria’s right-wing opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) said that the government was in talks with Russian banks on a EUR4 billion loan for Belene and would provide assures in the form of cash and long-term power purchasing agreements.

Bulgaria is the only European Union country which intends to build a nuclear power plant and take such huge loans in times of financial crisis, UDF’s chairman Martin Dimitrov said.

Martin said that such loans would only add to the economic pain Bulgaria has now experiencing and asked parliament to interfere and try to stop taking loans from Russia.

Petar Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s economy and energy minister said that Sofia is in talks with Moscow about possible funding for the 2,000 megawatt Belene but has not given details. In 2008, Russia offered a loan for the project from its state budget.

Sergei Stanishev, Bulgarian prime minister will visit Moscow next week and Belene is expected to be on his agenda.

Bulgaria’s leading opposition GERB party, which according to opinion polls will win the parliamentary elections due in July, said a temporary freeze on the project was best.

It is definitely a strategic project for our country which will meet our long-term power demand needs. But the government must not hurry to take any loans in times of financial crisis, Vladimir Uruchev, who leads GERB’s energy team, said. Taking loans from Russia will make Belene almost entirely a Russian project which was not in Bulgaria’s interests given the Black Sea nation’s near full dependence on Moscow for its gas and oil, Uruchev said.

NEK EAD has contracted JSC Atomstroyexport to construct the Belene nuclear plant.

NEK EAD has also selected BNP Paribas to help it arrange the financing but a source familiar with the process said banks had not shown interest till now due to the global crisis and some doubts about the viability of the project.