New Steps in Romania’s Drive to Produce SMRs
Romania can become a hub for new green energy capacity, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca having a meeting in this respect with representatives of the US company Fluor Corporation, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a turnover of about $15 billion a year. The company is the largest financier and shareholder of the small modular reactor technology, NuScale – the only technology in this class of nuclear power plants certified by a regulatory body (US NRC).
“The Doicesti SMR project is a project of national interest. The steps we are taking in Romania, which are based on the good partnership between Nuclearelectrica, NuScale Power and Fluor Co., are also of global importance and are supported at the highest level in the United States of America, including financially. We are determined to turn Romania into a hub of new green energy capacity, providing highly skilled jobs. We are focusing on the whole production chain to implement this flagship project for Europe, ensuring our energy security and even our role as a supplier in the region. I hope that the pace will be maintained for Cernavodă reactors 3 and 4,” Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca said.
Background
Nuclearelectrica and NuScale Power in November 2021 signed an agreement to advance the implementation of NuScale’s innovative technology of small modular reactors in Romania, this decade.
In May 2022, Nuclearelectrica, NuScale and E-Infra, the owner of the site, signed an agreement to develop Romania’s first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) on the site of the former Doicesti thermal power plant in Dambovita County. Under the agreement, Fluor Co. will coordinate the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) phase of the project.
On June 27, 2022, at the launch of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, presented at the G7 Leaders’ Summit, US President Joe Biden announced a $14 million grant for the development phase of the Small Modular Reactors in Romania by NuScale – Preliminary Front-End Engineering and Design Study for the SMR project in Romania.
The US company NuScale Power and the Romanian company RoPower Nuclear (equally owned by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas) have signed the contract for phase 1 of the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) work for the first small modular reactor (SMR) power plant in Romania. In November 2021, Energonuclear S.A., the project company, signed the first contract with Candu Energy, which will provide engineering services for the preparation and updating of documentation required to start the CANDU Units 3&4 Project.
So far, the project includes in Joint Venture (JV) US partners Fluor Corporation, Candu Energy and Sargent & Lundy. The JV’s main responsibilities are to provide project management and conceptual engineering development, an activity mainly carried out by Candu Energy, Sargent & Lundy and Ansaldo.
