Stanishev said the government was "studying the possibility to build additional nuclear capacity at the site of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

"We have set up a special working group to study this possibility from an expert and economic point of view," Stanishev said.

Under the terms of its accession to the European Union in 2007, Bulgaria shut down four Soviet-era reactors at its sole nuclear plant at Kozloduy due to concerns about their safety.

This left the plant with two 1,000 Megawatt reactors and effectively ended the country's role as a major electricity exporter in the Balkans.

To make up the shortfall, Bulgaria revived long-stalled plans to build a new nuclear plant at Belene, on the Danube east of Kozloduy.

In January, it signed a 4.0-billion-euro (6.2-billion-dollar) contract with Russian company Atomstroyexport for the plant's two reactors together with France's Areva and Germany's Siemens.

However, the first of Belene's reactors is only expected to come online in January 2014 and the second a year later.

"Building another 1,000 Megawatt bloc at Kozloduy will be good for Bulgaria but just as additional capacity, not as an alternative to Belene," Kozloduy plant director Ivan Genov told national radio Tuesday.

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