The agreement closed on Friday with the United States allows Romania to benefit from US technology and expertise for both Reactors 3 and 4 and for the refurbishment of Unit 1, keeping the CANDU 6 technology, with a Euro-Atlantic consortium, according to the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, Virgil Popescu.
Romania and the USA have clinched an extended intergovernmental agreement that allows cooperation in areas of importance to Romania, such as the project of Units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, the refurbishment of Unit 1, as well as cooperation on various levels in the civilian nuclear field in Romania.
“Romania is today taking a huge step forward in the development of its strategic partnership with the United States, in terms of the energy component, namely cooperation in the civil nuclear field. We promised and fulfilled, a strategic mission: Identifying NATO partners for Cernavoda Reactors 3 and 4. The agreement we signed today with United States’ Secretary of Energy, Dan Brouillette, allows us to have American technology and expertise for both Reactors 3 and 4, as well as for the refurbishment of Unit 1, keeping the CANDU 6 technology, within a larger Euro-Atlantic consortium, representing NATO member countries, and with financial support from the partners involved. At the same time, we want Romania and the USA in the civil nuclear field, and in addition to our American partners, we want to have Canadian and French partners. We see today that serious, predictable partnerships can be achieved if there is political will and sustained work. For SNN, this partnership is particularly important in the development of the company, which is on an upward trajectory, especially after it entered the FTSE Russell indices. I congratulate SNN for the work done so far and I encourage them to implement, responsibly, the next steps,” said Virgil Popescu, according to a release quoted by Agerpres.
At the same time, according to the quoted source, another important step for Romania in the relationship with the USA, which was made during this visit, consists in attracting massive investments in important fields in our country.
“Apart from the initialed agreement, we have managed to identify the US interest for a $7 billion funding component for the development of energy projects – including nuclear and liquefied natural gas and infrastructure projects – road, rail, gas storage, through a Memorandum of Understanding with Exim US. We also had a meeting in Washington DC with representatives of USDFC (The United States International Development Finance Corporation) to expand this financial interest by involving various US financial institutions. I would like to thank all those involved for making this agreement and the memorandum a reality, starting with the joint statement of the Presidents of the two partner states, Mr. Klaus Iohannis and Mr. Donald Trump, dated August 20, 2019, and for the effective start of this cooperation we thank the Prime Minister of Romania, Mr. Ludovic Orban and the US Ambassador to Romania, His Excellency Adrian Zuckerman and the Secretary of Energy’s team,” the minister said.
Regarding the Agreement between the Government of Romania and the Government of the United States of America on cooperation in connection with Cernavoda nuclear and energy projects and in the civilian nuclear energy sector in Romania, the initialing phase represents reaching an agreement in principle on the text and main elements of development of the projects and the parties involved, while the draft agreement will be sent to the European Commission according to the provisions of the EURATOM Treaty, the cooperation within the agreement being subordinated to the national, European and international provisions.
The purpose of the Intergovernmental Agreement is to develop the civilian nuclear program in Romania by ensuring technical expertise, regulation, safety and nuclear safety and, implicitly, strengthening the security, diversity, operational safety and energy and environmental stability of Romania, objectives associated to SNN’s investment projects – refurbishment of Unit 1 and expansion of the capacity of Cernavoda NPP.
The agreement covers several areas of cooperation, including: Unit 3 and 4 project, Unit 1 refurbishment, cooperation in various areas, such as regulation, exchanges between research laboratories and universities, staff training, research and development.
In addition to the current projects, Reactors 3 and 4 and Refurbishment of Unit 1 Cernavoda NPP, the Agreement also provides for long and very long cooperation through the possibility of developing small modular reactors in Romania, on a location to be further established, in order to ensure future flexibility and the scalability of nuclear technologies.