Bucharest also planning two new Candu plants at site
Italy’s Ansaldo Energia has signed an agreement to carry out work to extend the life of Unit 1 at the Cernavodă nuclear power station in Romania as part of a consortium with Canada’s Candu Energy and South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power.
The company said it had secured a financing line of up to €2bn ($2.1bn) from state export credit agency Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (Sace).
The memorandum of understanding with Romania’s state nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica was signed as Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu travelled to Rome for a bilateral summit.
In a statement, Ansaldo Energia said its Ansaldo Nucleare subsidiary would handle engineering and procurement for extending the life of the Cernavodă-1 plant, a a 650-MW Candu 6 unit, began commercial operation in 1996. A second unit at the suite, the identical Cernavodă-2, began commercial operation in 2007.
In 2017 Nuclearelectrica began a refurbishment project of Cernavodă-1 worth an estimated €1.85bn with the aim of extending its lifespan by 30 years.
As part of the latest deal, Ansaldo Nucleare will also help Nuclearelectrica complete the planned Units 3 and 4 at Cernavodă, in southeast Romania, the Italian company said.
Last year the Romanian government and Nuclearelectrica announced their intention to build two more Candu reactors at Cernavodă, Romania’s only commercial nuclear power station.
Four operational Candu reactors at the station would take nuclear power’s share of Romania’s electricity production to 36%, up from around 19% today.
