The biggest problem of the nuclear sector in Romania is the human resource, in the conditions in which people are trained at the Cernavoda power plant, then they go to other countries, said, on Monday, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu.

He was present in Cernavoda at the start of the vaccination campaign for Covid of the employees of the nuclear power plant.

“We talked about the problems that are and how we can get over them. We have a very big challenge: to build units 3 and 4, to re-engineer unit 1, and the biggest challenge is human resources. We need qualified, professional human resources, as it is now,” the minister specified.

He reminded that the Cernavoda plant has the most efficient nuclear reactors in the world, according to an independent study published annually, according to Agerpres.

“The biggest challenge will be to provide human resources for the operation of units 1 and 2 and for the construction and operation of reactors 3 and 4. People come, stay here, are trained, training a person in the field is not simple, it takes a long time, after which people are obviously looking for something better and are people who have left Cernavoda and are working in other countries in the nuclear sector. We need to be prepared to get over this, to find and bring in young people, new people. It’s a major challenge to maintain the standard of nuclear efficiency and safety,” the government official added.

Popescu also said that the supply of nuclear equipment is another challenge.

“This is because the Nuclear Safety Law is opposing the Procurement Law, but we, at a nuclear power plant, must first ensure nuclear safety and then talk about the commercial side. We are among ones with the safest power plants in the world, the most efficient and we want to stay that way,” he said.