“Unit 3 would cost around EUR3-3.5 billion. Nuclearelectrica could support this investments from its cash flow and bank loans. But it’s hard to get such big loans in Romania without state guarantees,” he said at the ZF Power Summit 2020 conference.
He added the company would have three functional nuclear reactors in the next ten years and perhaps will also start works on the fourth reactor.
Outgoing economy minister Virgil Popescu said Monday Romania would resume the building of a third a fourth nuclear reactor in Cernavoda with the help of NATO and EU partners. He said the government was also considering having Nuclearelectrica build one the planned reactors.
The nuclear power plant in Cernavoda currently operates two 700-megawatt reactors, covering around 20% of the country’s energy consumption.
Nuclearelectrica had signed a preliminary agreement with China General Nuclear Power Corporation for the construction of two nuclear reactors but that partnership has been dropped. Former prime minister Ludovic Orban said in January Romania would exit the partnership and would seek another investor. Cooperation between Nuclearelectrica and CGN became uncertain after Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis and US president Donald Trump signed a joint declaration on energy cooperation in August 2019.
Romania has been talking about developing two more nuclear reactor units at its plant in Cernavoda since 2003. Units 3 and 4 have been in conservation since 1992.