Bulgarians will be asked in a January referendum whether they want their country to be home to a second nuclear power plant, the office of President Rosen Plevneliev said Wednesday.

In a statement, his office said the national poll would take place on January 27, 2013.

"The question: should Bulgaria develop nuclear energy through building a new nuclear power plant?" the statement said.

The referendum, Bulgaria's first since communism ended in 1989, will come just 10 months after the right-wing government scrapped a long-delayed deal with Russian state-owned company Atomstroyexport to build a second, 2,000-megawatt nuclear plant at Belene.

Although the referendum stops short of mentioning Belene, any new plant is likely to be built there as European Union regulators have already granted approval for the site.

Results of the referendum are likely to become a major campaign issue in July 2013 general elections.

But experts have warned that turnout may fall short of that of the last parliamentary elections, as required by law.

Bulgaria was forced to mothball over safety concerns four reactors at its nuclear power plant at Kozloduy when it joined the EU in 2007. It sought to compensate for the lost capacity by building Belene.