Romania: 620 million for the renovation of the old blocks and the start of work on the new blocks.

A Romanian company operating Romanian nuclear power plants, Nuclearelectrica, has signed a financing agreement totaling 620 million euros with a banking syndicate led by JPMorgan, reports WNN

The funds are allocated for two key strategic projects: 540 million euros will be directed toward renovating Unit 1 of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, while 80 million euros will finance the next development phase for Units 3 and 4 at the same plant.

The Unit 1 reconstruction project, estimated at 1.9 billion euros, is currently in the second execution phase. Infrastructure works began earlier this month. This phase includes key preparatory activities such as: planning and development of the execution plan and construction of infrastructure; entering into contracts for engineering, design, procurement and construction; procurement of equipment and obtaining the necessary permits.

In December of last year, Nuclearelectrica signed an EPC contract for the renovation of Unit 1 with an international consortium comprising Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, AtkinsRéalis’s Candu Energy, Canadian Commercial Corporation and Ansaldo Nucleare.

The second part of the loan of 80 million euros will be used for works on future Units 3 and 4, which also involve obtaining the European Commission's opinion on the project and positive state aid decisions as well as the adoption of the final investment decision for moving to the construction phase.

In November of last year, Nuclearelectrica signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contract for the completion of Units 3 and 4, whose estimated value is around 3.2 billion euros. The contract was signed with the joint venture FCSA, which includes Fluor, AtkinsRéalis, Ansaldo Nucleare and Sargent & Lundy Energy.

By the way, Cernavoda is the only nuclear power plant in Romania, equipped with two active CANDU-type reactors with a capacity of 650 megawatts each. Unit 1 has been in commercial operation since 1996, and Unit 2 since 2007. Work on Units 3 and 4 (also CANDU-6 reactors) began in the 1980s but was halted. Romania is the only country in the region that uses CANDU reactor technology, which provides certain advantages. CANDU reactors are Canadian-designed, cooled and moderated with heavy water and, because of that, have an exceptionally good so-called "neutron economy," i.e., the utilization rate of prompt and delayed neutrons. Because of this, these reactors can use natural (unenriched) uranium as fuel, and due to the design of the reactor vessel (calandria) they have the ability to replace fuel rods without shutting down the reactor, which also means that the capacity factor of these reactors is exceptionally high.