Romanian President leads visit to Doosan SMR production facilities
25 April 2024
Romania plans a small modular reactor power plant, using NuScale technology, with South Korea's Doosan Enerbility set to manufacture and supply the core equipment, including the upper reactor module.
Geewon Park, centre, with President Iohannis, right, during the visit (Image: Doosan Enerbility)
Romania's SMR project is aiming for 462 MWe installed capacity, using six 77 MWe NuScale modules. The SMR project, at Doicesti where a thermal power plant will be replaced, is expected to create nearly 200 permanent jobs, 1500 construction jobs and 2300 manufacturing and component assembly jobs, as well as facility operation and maintenance jobs over the 60-year life of the facility.
During the visit to the manufacturing facilities in Changwon, the delegation of senior Romanian politicians and industry figures toured the forging shop and reviewed specific facilities for SMR production and discussed the project schedule. Doosan signed a business collaboration agreement with NuScale for the supply of NuScale Power Modules and other equipment in 2019. Together with other Korean financial investors it has also made an equity investment of nearly USD104 million in NuScale Power.
President Klaus Iohannis said after the visit: "Romania wants to develop its supply chains in the clean energy industry and hence lead in supporting the regional decarbonisation efforts. International cooperation and partnering with well-established actors is key to achieving this objective and securing Romania’s energy and economic future".
Also on the visit was Cosmin Ghita, CEO of Romania's nuclear power company Nuclearelectrica, who said: "The Romanian SMR Project will benefit from the highest level of nuclear safety and technological robustness. Doosan Enerbility, with their internationally acknowledged experience in nuclear equipment manufacturing and advancements in SMR technologies, will significantly contribute to ensuring that, by the end of the 2030s, Romania will become a benchmark in advanced nuclear technology implementation and efficient long-term clean energy projects."
Melania Amuza, CEO of the SMR project company RoPower, a joint venture between Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power and Gas, said: "The sustainable development of the Doicesti SMR project includes strong supply chain links ... we look forward to building together a flagship SMR project for Romania."
Doosan Enerbility CEO and Chairman Geewon Park, said: "Leveraging a strong cooperative relationship with NuScale Power, Doosan Enerbility is consistently improving its production capabilities through innovation and technological advancements for SMRs. We are actively preparing for the deployment of Romania's first SMR project, with the goal of supporting the reliable provision of clean energy in Romania."
NuScale Power and RoPower have been conducting a Front End Engineering and Design Phase 1 study to analyse the preferred SMR site - which got International Atomic Energy Agency approval earlier this month - and received USD275 million funding last May from the USA and "multinational public-private partners" to support procurement of "long lead materials, Phase 2 Front End Engineering and Design work, provision of project management expertise, site characterisation and regulatory analyses, and the development of site-specific schedule and budget estimates for project execution".
Researched and written by World Nuclear News