Back to search results

The Cernavodă nuclear power station in Romania has two Candu reactor units. France and Romania signed a declaration of intent that includes plan to work with “strategic partners” to build Units 3 and 4 of the Cernavodă nuclear power station and to refurbish Unit 1.

The document was signed by French prime minister Jean Castex and his Romanian counterpart Ludovic Orban, who led a delegation of his ministers to Paris.

In a statement following the signing Mr Orban said an agreement had also been signed between Romana’s state nuclear corporation Nuclearelectrica, which operates the Cernavodă station, and French nuclear engineering company Orano, but he gave no further details.

Earlier this month Romania and the US signed a draft cooperation agreement for the construction of Cernavodă-3 and -4 and the refurbishment of Cernavodă-1.

Nuclearelectrica ended talks with China General Nuclear (CGN) about the Cernavodă construction and refurbishment project in June after they had dragged on for six years.

Neither Nuclearelectrica nor the government has said why Romania cancelled the deal with CGN. Press reports in Romania said CGN had been criticised by Romania’s “strategic partners” over security issues tied to the use of Chinese technology. Reports also said there had been cost concerns related to the Cernavodă project.

According to press reports, cooperation between Nuclearelectrica and CGN became uncertain after Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis and US president Donald Trump signed a joint declaration in Washington last year that called for closer cooperation between US and Romania in nuclear energy.

Cernavodă has two commercially operational Candu 6 pressurised heavy water reactors supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and built under the supervision of a Canadian-Italian consortium of AECL and Ansaldo.

Unit 1 began commercial operation in 1996. Unit 2 was subsequently completed and began commercial operation in 2007. Efforts to resume work on Cernavodă-3 and -4 began in 2003.

The Cernavodă-3 and -4 project consists of completing and commissioning two Candu 6 type units with a minimum installed capacity of 720 MW each. According to Nuclearelectrica existing structures for the two units include the reactor building, the turbine-generator building and hydrotechnical circuit structures. These are in various stages of completion and will be used for any future construction.

Date: Thursday, 29 October 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/romania-signs-declaration-of-intent-with-france-10-3-2020