Cernavodă nuclear power plant is one of Romania’s leading technical achievements, managed almost entirely with internal resources of knowledge, capital, equipment and labor. Supplementing the two reactors with two additional tops the bill in several talks on Romania’s national energy policy, and this investment project opponents are not missing. We discussed with Eng. Ionel Bucur, PhD, General Manager of Cernavodă NPP, about the evolutionary perspective for Romanian nuclear sector, from a technical, professional and economic point of view nuclear energy being for a long time from now one of the elements of national power system stability.

For how long have you tied your career path to Cernavodă NPP and what are the most sensitive situations that you had to solve from the position of general manager of the unit?

My entire life means nuclear industry. In 1979 I was an engineer at the CSEN INC technical service, where we analyzed the technical and economic documents for the realization of the plant, the nuclear safety analyzes, obtaining permits and licenses for construction and installation work on site. At that time I was an engineer specialized in power plants and atomic installations, in the early history of Romanian nuclear power, when the intent of developing the Romanian nuclear program seemed the ultimate challenge.

We started from the supporting documents for a project and took the journey of excellence in the nuclear industry, to the first place in the world in terms of capacity utilization rate. Meanwhile, generations of specialists have formed, because nuclear safety means experts, before robustness of the technology. Cernavodă NPP uses Canadian technology, repeatedly confirmed by independent experts, without history of incidents. It does not mean that I did not have to face difficult situations, but results show that the decisions made were good.

There are no sensitive situations in the nuclear industry. There are only standards, rules, procedures and people who know how to handle each situation. Experts are people who worked with boots in the mud and today raise new generations. There are plans, processes, performance indicators to fulfill and actions to reach them. There are proactive measures and corrective actions whose purpose is to eliminate hazard.

How does a workday look like for you?

My workday starts at 7:00a.m., ends when I believe that everything that had to be resolved that day is resolved. If the workday becomes work night, it’s only natural for this industry. There are no half measures or guess-work. The workday means constant contact with people and situations. It means every day an operative meeting, which is the diagnosis and corollary of what to do, with deadlines, responsibilities and concrete measures, designed and executed dynamically.

At an objective look, what is the future of units we have, what is missing and what needs to be replaced to maintain safe in operation?

Cernavodă NPP currently operates at a very high capacity utilization rate and this rate is indicative of all the basic or support processes related to the operation of the plant. Such a plant lacks nothing to operate in conditions of performance and maximum nuclear security. The maintenance and repair plan is designed in the long term, we clearly know the need for parts and equipment and their lifespan.

Maintenance is a key factor for production in optimal conditions of security. The medium and long-term strategic investments plan includes improvements to nuclear security resulting from the stress tests and which represents an improved response in emergency situations for events outside the project bases. The probability for these events to occur is extremely low, but that’s the proactive nature of this industry. Unit 1 will enter refurbishment after 2024, to extend its life. After works, it will continue to produce the same energy, in the same conditions of security, at a low production cost, for other 30 years. Corroborating European energy policies with the real needs of the Romanian energy system in the long run, I believe the future of nuclear energy in Romania should be a certainty, having the capacity to support the decarbonization policy.

Qualified human resource is increasingly difficult to keep and local companies that could work as suppliers for works at Cernavodă NPP have become scarce. Is there a risk to import skilled manpower and adequate equipment?

Labor migration has become a global trend in the nuclear industry, and retention of highly skilled human resources is not only the challenge of Nuclearelectrica. Global nuclear industry develops by building new units, because there are major objectives and needs that determine states with strong oil industry to direct their investments to the nuclear sector. As most such countries are in the early stage of the nuclear program, they need a massive infusion of specialized staff from states with experience in operation. For that, they offer highly motivating financial benefits packages, so it becomes difficult to stop the migration of staff from countries with difficult economic situation that cannot compensate for differences in pay.

Currently, Cernavodă NPP has highly qualified staff to train the new specialists, has recruitment, development and continuous training programs for human resources. The nuclear industry is directly involved in attracting young people, either by programs to promote the industry and its benefits addressed to high school students, or by collaborations with specialized faculties of the Polytechnic University. The human resources strategy, policies and objectives are focused in the long term to identify, train and retain the human resource.

The nuclear industry is a global chain and the staff is in a continuous exchange of experience, on various specializations. Some learn from us, we learn from others, and multidisciplinary ensures optimum functionality. We are trying to keep up with other states in terms of motivating factors, to the extent that the law allows this. An expert is formed in years; the industry depends on these people and together is a national asset. The good news is that Romania still has a horizontal nuclear industry and we work with Romanian companies which provide quality products and services.

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The full version of this article can be read in printed edition of energynomics.ro Magazine, issued on December 2015.

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