SLOVAKIA’S dominant power producer, Slovenské Elektrárne (SE), has launched a tender to build the third and fourth blocks of the Mochovce nuclear power plant. The tender was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the SITA newswire wrote.
Potential bidders must demonstrate an interest by September 18 and submit their final bids by December 8.
Construction works at Mochovce's third and fourth blocks are expected to start on April 1, 2009 and finish by the end of June 2011.
Work on the blocks originally began in 1987, but stopped in 1992 due to a lack of money. Seventy percent of the construction work and 30 percent of the technical preparations for the new blocks are already complete. The third block is expected to be completed in 2012 and the fourth a year later. The whole project will cost €1.8 billion, the ČTK newswire wrote.
The new blocks at Mochovce station should replace the electricity production lost by the closure of the V-1 nuclear power plant at Jaslovské Bohunice. Slovakia agreed to close the V-1’s first block in 2006 and the second block this year as part of its EU pre-entry talks.
Enel owns 66 percent of SE; the state holds the remaining share.
