Romanian Ministry of Energy, as the major shareholder in Nuclearelectrica, the company which operates Romania’s sole nuclear power
plant Cernavoda, will have to decide whether to approve the company’s final investment decision on the refurbishment of NPP Cernavoda’s unit 1.
The project involves the shutdown of the reactor for two years, between 2027 and 2029. At this moment, such a shutdown would create major problems as each of the two reactors supply nearly 10 % of the country’s electricity. The decision will be made at the next shareholders’
meeting scheduled for 23 February.
If the final investment decision is approved, between April 2022 and December 2026, phase two of the project will take place, which consists
in preparing the implementation (detailed solutions, component procurement, planning the implementation of activities, infrastructure
construction).
Phase three, which involves shutting down unit 1 and carrying out the actual refurbishment, followed by the commissioning of the unit, will
take place in the 2027-2029 period.
Unit 1 of NPP Cernavoda was put into commercial operation in December 1996, and should end its first operating cycle in December 2026, but the current 10-year operating license expires in 2023. However, according to the assessments made in 2018 by the plant’s designer, Candu Energy, it is expected that unit 1 can be operated in full safety conditions until the end of 2026.
