Project at Cernavodă-1 scheduled for completion in 2030
An international consortium has begun a major overhaul that will extend the operational lifetime of the Cernavodă-1 nuclear plant by 30 years.
Romania’ state-owned nuclear power plant operator Nuclearelectrica signed the main engineering, construction and procurement contract for the project, estimated to cost about €1.9bn ($2.2bn), at the end of 2024.
The contract is with a consortium of four companies, comprising Canada’s AtkinsRealis, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Italy’s Ansaldo Nucleare.
The work, targeted for completion by 2030, includes the complete replacement of the reactor systems and power-generating turbines, as well as the construction of new infrastructure, including radioactive waste storage facilities, said KHNP.
Cernavodă, which is Romania’s only commercial nuclear station, has two 650-MW Canada-designed Candu-6 plants that began commercial operation in 1996 and 2007.
The Candu technology is owned by Candu Energy Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Montreal-based AtkinsRealis, formerly SNC-Lavalin.
The International Atomic Energy Agency put the share of electricity production from the two Cernavodă units in 2024 at 19.8%.
Bucharest is also planning to add two new Candu units at Cernavodă. In September 2023, Canada announced CAD3bn (€1.8bn, $2.1bn) in export financing to Nuclearelectrica towards the construction of the two new plants.
Last year the Romanian government approved the country’s first energy strategy in 17 years, envisaging a gradual shift up to 2035 from coal-fired power plants to natural gas in the short term and nuclear power in the medium and long term.
