"The nuclear plant at Belene will be built in one of the safest zones in terms of seismic activity in Bulgaria," the company said in a statement.

NEC cited analysis by Bulgaria's geophysical institute that found the 30-kilometre zone around the Belene site had never been subjected to any earthquakes equal to or exceeding magnitude four on the Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik scale.

Magnitude four causes moderate ground shaking and no damage to buildings.

"If there is an earthquake, flooding by the Danube, or even if a plane goes down on the site, the construction (of the plant at Belene) is designed to sustain this with no consequences," the chairman of the non-governmental Bulgarian Atomic Forum, Bogomil Manchev, told the national radio Friday.

Environmental groups and a Bulgarian nuclear expert working at Vienna's Institute of Risk Research urged the European Commission Friday in Brussels not to approve the construction of the Belene plant saying that the site was in a seismic zone.

Bulgaria, which signed last year a 4.0-billion-euro (5.9-billion-dollar) contract with the Russian company Atomstroyexport to build the long-stalled facility, is awaiting the EU's executive arm greenlight to start the project.

Construction work on the first of the plant's two 1,000-megawatt reactors is scheduled to begin in 2008, with the first reactor expected to be operational by January 2014 and the second a year later.

earlier related report
EU concerned about Bulgarian atomic plant
A Bulgarian nuclear expert and environmental groups urged the European Commission Friday not to approve the construction of the Belene atomic plant in Bulgaria, warning that the site was in a seismic zone.

"The Commission, and President (Jose Manuel) Barroso, are unfortunately playing Russian roulette with our citizens and our societies," said Guerorgui Kastchiev, former head of Bulgaria's nuclear safety authority.

The groups expressed concern that the EU's executive arm would meet next month to greenlight the Belene project near the border with Romania, an endorsement that would entitle the government to apply for millions of euros in EU loans.

But Kastchiev, now a nuclear physicist at Vienna's Institute of Risk Research, and the green groups, said the commission was preparing to endorse the project without studying all the risks.

In 1977, around 120 people died in an earthquake in the village of Svishtov, some 14 kilometres (nine miles) away from the site.

The plant is expected to be operational in 2013, with the Russian specialist Atomstroyexport being responsible for building it.

The green groups underlined that Atomstroyexport is 84 percent owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, and complained that the commission would be helping the new EU member become more dependent on Russian energy.

The EU has been on a drive to reduce its dependency on Russia for energy supplies since Gazprom switched of its natural gas supplies to Ukraine during a harsh winter in January 2006 which caused disruption in Europe.

Greenpeace Europe nuclear expert Jan Haverkamp underlined that Belene was an important test-case, as other central European countries are considering plans for new nuclear power plants or reviving old ones from communist times.

Serious preparations were being made for up to nine plants, he said, with some of them also planning to seek loans through the EU's nuclear agency Euratom.

"Belene is only the first of a long list of controversial nuclear schemes that were conceived during Soviet times and are now finding their way back onto official agendas," the groups, also including German NGO Urgewald, said.

Belgian, German and Italian companies are among those vying for a 49 percent stake in the Belene Power Company, which will run the plant, expected to cost at least four billion euros (six billion dollars).