New nuclear construction and modular reactors are part of Romania’s agenda for decarbonization and security of supply for decades to come, and a partnership with the United States is essential, Romanian Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said in a discussion with US officials and many leaders in the sector, which took place in Prague on Tuesday.
“This morning I attended as a keynote speaker in the nuclear energy discussion group organized by the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy & Climate Cooperation (P-TECC). The topic of discussion was ‘Energy Security and Diversification in Europe: Civil Nuclear Energy Perspectives’. Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine has renewed global interest in diversifying energy sectors to increase security and ensure reliability while achieving climate goals. As such, we have discussed the prority nuclear energy projects envisaged by the P-TECC countries,” the minister wrote on Facebook, according to Agerpres.
He said that we are facing unprecedented circumstances that are provoking the architecture of our modern society, with particularly serious implications for the energy sector.
“We fully support the IAEA’s efforts to provide a framework for cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in order to ensure the safety of nuclear installations. Romania, together with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia, has written a letter to the European Commission in support of the IAEA, asking for more concrete measures. We believe that such a framework should be established as soon as possible to allow for international expert missions on the ground. At the same time, we said that cooperation is needed to diversify our sources of supply, while we remain committed to carrying out the decarbonisation plan, which is why we are also relying on nuclear energy. With regard to energy prices, we must work together to find long-term solutions, at the same time as actions to reduce dependence on the Russian Federation and strengthen energy security,” Popescu added.
According to him, Romania is firmly committed to the further development of the national civilian nuclear program.
“New nuclear power plants and SMRs (small modular reactors) are part of our decarbonisation and security of supply agenda for the coming decades. Therefore, the partnership with the US is essential, given that our country and the US see nuclear energy as a long-term contributor to achieving climate goals, while ensuring energy security and improving the competitiveness of our economies by creating jobs with a high level of expertise,” the Romanian official also said.