By RBJ
Romania is on the right track to become the first country to have the newest, safe and clean nuclear technology – SMR, the Government says, after Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă had a meeting with the representatives of the American company Fluor Corporation, shareholder of modular reactor technology of small size. “We are determined to transform Romania into a pole of new capacities for green energy, which will ensure highly qualified jobs. We are focusing on the entire production chain to implement this flagship project for Europe”, states Ciucă.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă had a meeting with the representatives of the American company Fluor Corporation, listed on the New York stock exchange, with a turnover of approximately 15 billion dollars per year. The company is the largest financier and shareholder of the technology of small modular reactors, NuScale – the only technology in this class of nuclear power plants certified by a regulatory body (US NRC), the Government announces in a press release.
“The SMR project from Doicesti is an objective of national interest. The steps we are taking in Romania, which are based on the partnership between Nuclearelectrica, NuScale Power and Fluor Co., are also important at a global level, and the actions taken are supported by the highest level of the United States of America, including financially . We are determined to transform Romania into a pole of new capacities for green energy, which will ensure highly qualified jobs. We are focusing on the entire production chain to implement this flagship project for Europe, which will ensure our energy security and even the role of supplier in the region. I want the pace to be maintained for reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavodă,” said Ciucă.
In November 2021, Nuclearelectrica and NuScale Power signed an agreement to advance the implementation of NuScale’s innovative small modular reactor technology in Romania this decade.
In May 2022, Nuclearelectrica, NuScale and E-Infra, the owner of the site, signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding – n.r.) for the development of the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Romania on the site of the former thermal power plant in Doicesti, Dâmboviţa county. Fluor Co. will coordinate the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) stage for this project.
On June 27, 2022, on the occasion of the launch of the Partnership for Infrastructure and Global Investments, presented at the G7 Leaders Summit, the President of the United States Joe Biden announced the allocation of a grant of 14 million dollars for the development stage of small modular reactors in Romania by NuScale – Preliminary engineering study and front-end design for the SMR project in Romania.
The American company NuScale Power and the Romanian company RoPower Nuclear (equally owned by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas) signed the contract for phase 1 of the engineering and design works for the first plant with small modular nuclear reactors in Romania.
Regarding the project of Units 3 and 4 from CNE Cernavodă, in November 2021, Energonuclear S.A., the project company, signed the first contract with Candu Energy, which will provide engineering services for the development and updating of some documentation necessary to start the CANDU Units Project 3&4.
So far, within the project, the American partners Fluor Corporation, Candu Energy and Sargent&Lundy have joined in the Joint Venture (JV). The main responsibilities of the JV consist mainly of providing project management and conceptual engineering development, an activity mainly provided by Candu Energy, Sargent & Lundy and Ansaldo.
