Russia’s state-controlled nuclear power plant construction company Atomstroyexport has won a $5.1 billion deal to build two power reactors at Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant, Russian officials said on Tuesday, October 31.

The other bidder was Czech consortium Skoda Alliance, but Bulgaria’s electricity company said the main reasons for choosing the Russian bid were “the higher safety and the longer term of operation of the reactors.”

The nuclear plant is to be completed in seven and a half years, the national electricity company said.

According to an Atomstroyexport spokesperson, French nuclear company Areva and Germany’s Siemens will participate in the construction. No details were given.

Bulgaria’s government invested more than $1 billion in the project to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear units at the Danube port of Belene, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Sofia, but froze it in 1990 after environmentalists said it could pose a safety risk.

The project was revived last year to compensate for the closure of two aging units at the country’s only nuclear plant in Kozlodui, which the Balkan country agreed to shut this year under its entry treaty with the European Union. Bulgaria will join the EU in January.

Environmental group Greenpeace criticized the choice of the Russian company as “fast and cheap, and concludes that that is a bad basis for nuclear safety, as well as economic security for Bulgaria.”

Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace nuclear expert for Central Europe, said in a statement that was quoted by Associated Press: “There are only two reactors of this type (VVER 1000/B466) under construction, one in China and one in India, which both are already facing heavy delays. There is no experience with operation, nor has this type been licensed in Europe before.”

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