US Exim Bank grants Romania a loan of over $3 billion for the construction, until 2030, of the two new nuclear reactors for the production of electricity

By RBJ
The PM of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă, announced that the two new reactors at Cernavodă will be built by 2030. He said that the preliminary work phase, financed with the US loan of 50 million dollars, will be completed by 2025, and the actual construction phase of the two-reactor project, financed by a US$3 billion loan, will be completed by 2030.
The Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, received on Wednesday from the president of the American bank US Exim Bank the letters of intent for two loans, of 50 million dollars and 3 billion dollars, for the construction of two new units of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, according to an announcement of the Presidential Administration. The ceremony held in Egypt was attended by President Klaus Iohannis and the Special Representative of the President of the United States of America for Climate, John Kerry.
In Cernavodă, two electricity production units of 700 MW each operate, and Romania wants to build two more, in order to increase its degree of energy independence.
The ceremony took place on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt), where a UN climate change summit is being held.
The handover of the two letters of intent regarding the US Exim Bank loans for Units 3 and 4 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant takes place on the sidelines of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).
The documents were handed over by the President of US Exim Bank, Reta Jo Lewis, to the Romanian Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.
The two letters of intent from US Exim Bank are for a first loan of approximately USD 50 million, which will support the development of Phase Two, preliminary works, of the Units 3 and 4 projects, and a subsequent loan of USD 3 billion, which will support the third Phase, of the actual construction of the project.
The Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant is managed by the National Nuclear Electric Company, controlled by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Energy.
In 2020, Romania and the US signed a government-level agreement allowing Romania access to American nuclear technology, abandoning an initial plan to develop the new reactors through a partnership with China.
The visit to the USA in 2020 of the Minister of Economy and Energy, Virgil Popescu, led to the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation with American companies for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavodă, as well as the refurbishment of reactor 1 – the first nuclear power plant built. Minister Popescu announced that the Agreement allows Romania access to American CANDU 6 technology, and the works would be carried out by a consortium of companies from the USA, Canada and France.
The collaboration project was announced as early as August 20, 2019, when Presidents Klaus Iohannis and Donald Trump signed a Joint Declaration in Washington committing to cooperate in the civil nuclear field. Later, NuclearElectrica SA, controlled by the Ministry of Economy, denounced an agreement with a Chinese company for the construction of the targets in Cernavodă.