Support for more nuclear in Romania

20 March 2008

Building another nuclear power plant in Romania is "extremely necessary", said prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The country already has two reactors and has recently selected investors to complete another two.

 

Speaking in Brussels, Tariceanu said that the country should have an energy policy "that will give us security in the future." As well as the successful implementation of plans for the 3,300 km Nabucco gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Austria, he said "the continuation of the nuclear program by building a new power plant would be extremely necessary for Romania."

 

The country's nuclear utility, Nuclearelectrica, has only recently chosen major partners for the completion of two more pressurized heavy water reactors at the Cernavoda site. ArcelorMittal, CEZ, Electrabel, Enel, Iberdrola and RWE Power are the chosen consortium to fund the completion of and operate the units, which will be 750 MWe Candu units designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Construction work costing €2.2 billion ($3.3 billion) is to start in 2009 and finish in 2014-5.

 

Investors

 

Spain's Iberdrola has already said it will have a share of at least 10% of the utilities' joint venture, which is to have an initial equity of €30 million ($46 million).

 

According to a Bloomberg report, CEZ of the Czech Republic has secured a 15% stake in the investing joint venture. Vladimir Schmalz, CEZ's director of mergers and acquisitions, told the news outlet the company was looking at investing in potential nuclear projects in Turkey, Slovakia and Poland because of limited options to expand at home.