Romania Signed The Support Agreement For Cernavoda-3 And -4

The Romanian government and the national nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica signed a support agreement which allows the start of the next phase of the project to construct two new units at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

Indeed, the Phase II of the project includes the conclusion of contracts for the “critical engineering necessary to update the project, the updating of the project budget, the structuring and contracting of the financing and the agreement of an appropriate contractual architecture for the implementation of the project”, as well as getting European Commission and Euratom go-ahead for the project and state aid, as well as “obtaining the Nuclear Safety Authorisation for the Construction phase and making the Final Investment Decision to proceed to Phase III (Construction)”.

The four units at Cernavoda will generate about 66% of Romania’s clean energy, with an impact in achieving Romania’s decarbonisation targets.

said Cosmin Ghita, CEO of Nuclearelectrica.

The Support Agreement emphasizes once again the Romanian government’s endorsement of the project and provides state guarantees to the financiers.

Read more on the World Nuclear News article.

Romania currently operates the two-units Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

Each unit has 650MW CANDU reactors and the same technology would likely be deployed for future units, as Romania declared.

In October 2021, Bucharest adopted the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate Change, which calls for two new CANDU reactors at Cernavoda by 2031 and the refurbishment of an existing unit there in 2037, so as to double the country’s nuclear power supply in a decade.

Then, on 19th December 2022, the Romanian government adopted a draft law on the agreement to build two new commercial reactors at the Cernavoda NPP.