Bucharest, December 5, 2023 – # rbj – The Ministry of Energy announces that the Uranium Concentrates Processing Factory, a subsidiary of Societăţii Nuclearelectrica SA, has purchased assets of the National Uranium Company, worth over 3 million euros. The Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, confirmed that the transaction represents “a huge step towards ensuring Romania’s nuclear security and energy security”.
“As part of an auction organized by the judicial administrator of Compania Nationala a Uraniuului SA, in insolvency, the Uranium Concentrate Processing Plant, a subsidiary of Societăţia Nuclearelectrica SA, bought the assets related to the technological flow of the R Plant from Feldioara, thus completing the nuclear circuit integrated”, transmitted, on Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Energy, in a press release.
The cited source stated that the package of assets purchased in the public auction is composed of land, constructions and special constructions, technological equipment, measuring devices and installations, control and regulation, means of transport, technical installations and machines, fixed assets of the nature inventory items, furniture and office equipment and stocks and was purchased at the price of 3,286,354 euros, exclusive of VAT.
“I am glad to see that this transaction has been concluded. We requested the urgency of the transaction, in order to complete the integrated nuclear circuit within a strong and strategic operator, Societatea Nuclearelectrica SA. Today’s transaction represents a huge step towards ensuring Romania’s nuclear security and energy security. Romania’s civil nuclear projects are ambitious and show the Romanian state’s commitment to a sustainable, cheap, environmentally safe energy source capable of providing conditions for economic development. At this moment, within the SNN, all technological processes can be carried out, from uranium mining, to processing, refining and transformation into nuclear fuel and its exploitation within the Cernavodă Power Plant”, said the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.
“The tender was organized by the consortium formed by Expert Insolvency SPRL Filiala Bucharest and Aktiv-Lex Insolvency SPRL, appointed by the conclusion of the meeting dated 12.04.2022 issued in file no. 23089/3/2021 pending before the Court of Bucharest, Civil Section VII, in the capacity of judicial administrator and was held on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, at the headquarters in Bucharest of the judicial administrator”, the Ministry of Energy also transmitted.
With the completion of this transaction through which Plant E from Feldioara, Nuclearelectrica (SNN) owns all the units that can constitute an integrated nuclear cycle, from the extraction of uranium ore to the production of electricity in the Cernavodă nuclear power plant.
SNN owned the nuclear fuel factory, necessary for the reactors at Cernavodă, in Pitesti, and also took over from the defunct CNU the mine and the license for the exploitation of uranium from the Tulgheș-Grințieș deposit and the uranium ore preparation units from Feldioara.
The institution reminds that, in December 2022, the insolvent National Uranium Company completed the transaction related to the technological flow related to the E plant in Feldioara.
Nuclearelectrica took over the ore processing plant from Feldioara from the bankrupt National Uranium Company (CNU), for which it paid around 9 million euros. Later, SNN received, free of charge, from the CNU by transfer, the license to exploit the uranium ore, and the start of the exploitation of the new mine at Tulgheș. Thus, the company will have the raw material to produce the nuclear fuel in the Pitesti unit, which will be used in the reactors of the Cernavodă plant.
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In 1950, the activity of research and exploitation of radioactive ores begins in Romania. In 1963, the activity was continued by the “Geological Expedition Organization” within the Rare Metals Trust. From this core, later, in 1973, the Rare Metals Enterprise was established, which transformed in the early 1990s into the Rare Metals Autonomous Directorate.
National Uranium Company S.A. was established by Government Decision no. 785/1997, through the reorganization of the Autonomous Directorate for Rare Metals – Bucharest being a joint-stock company.
