Bulgaria could seal an agreement with Russia in the coming days on freezing the Belene nuclear power project for three months, Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borissov said on Sunday. "We have come to an agreement and I hope we will sign a memorandum with Russia by Thursday", he said. The 90 days will be used for clarifying all technical parameters of the future plant, including seismic risks, project costs and other key issues, Borissov added.

The 11th annex to the main contract between Bulgaria and Russia on the construction of the Belene nuke plant expires on March 31, 2011 and the parties are expected to sign the next agreement by then.
Currently, a group of experts from Sofia and Moscow are working on the 12th annex to the contract of 2006, which is expected to cost between EUR 1 billion (USD 1.4bn) and EUR 2 billion and to settle the implementation of activities within the next two years.

Recently, energy minister Traicho Traikov said that Russia and Bulgaria had not set a deadline for signing the 12th agreement. "At the moment when around the world eyes are turned towards Japan, I believe that the issue, which concerns purely economic relations, should be postponed for at least several weeks", Traikov said.