France's Areva to Participate in Building Second Nuclear Power Plant in Romania
Posted on: Saturday, 10 May 2008, 06:00 CDT
Text of report in English by Romanian news agency Rompres,
Bucharest, 9 May: French company Areva, the main constructor of nuclear power plants worldwide, will participate in the construction of a new nuclear power-plant, which the Romanian government is contemplating commissioning by 2020, Power Engineering International reports in an on-line story. According to the publication, the new plant will probably be located in Transylvania, central Romania, near the Mures, Somes, or Olt Rivers, and will have a 1200 MW capacity.
The existing nuclear power-plant at Cernavoda uses Canadian Candu reactor, but the new plant is set to use different technology, the publication says. Rising oil and gas prices have made the Romanian authorities to decide to build the second nuclear power plant. "Romania needs a second plant as energy demand is permanently on the rise and fossil energy will be replaced," says Philippe Garderet, scientific director of Areva, who is visiting Bucharest to attend a conference on the developments from the discovery of radioactivity to current and future nuclear power applications. According to Garderet, France could invest in Romania including in uranium exploitation.
In a statement to Rompres, the director general of Nuclearelectrica power plant, Teodor Chirila, said this information might have been included in the strategic partnership between Romania and France, which business details he does not know, but it admitted that Areva is better positioned to select builders for a nuclear power-plant, because it is the only company in Europe to build nuclear reactors. "Yet, Areva's participation in the project has not been established. A contract with the builder of a nuclear power-plant we want to finalize in 2020 should be signed between 2012 and 2014 and much can change in the meantime," said Chirila.
In relation to the capacity of the future power plant, Chirila said that the 1,200 MW mentioned by Power Engineering is probably an estimate of Areva based on the technology it operates, but the Romanian Government has not decided anything to the point yet.
In the autumn of 2007, upon the inauguration of the second unit of the Cernavoda nuclear power-plant, Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu announced having asked the Romanian Ministry of Economy and Finance to find out the best location for a new nuclear power-plant in Romania which construction should start after the finalization of the third and forth units of the Cernavoda plant, that is after 2015.
Feasibility studies dating to the 1980s indicate that besides Cernavoda, the basin of the Siret River, eastern Romania, the Fagaras central area, and southern Olt River are excellent locations for nuclear power-plants in Romania. Officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance say new feasibility studies will be conducted this summer. The South-East Europe development manager of France's Electricite de France giant public utility, Serge Bouvier, has recently stated that Electricite de France is interested in getting involved in the construction of a new nuclear power-plant in Romania depending on the technology the Romanian Government chooses to use.
Originally published by Rompres news agency, Bucharest, in English 1536 9 May 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: BBC Monitoring European
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