Units 3 and 4 of Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant (NPP) have been included in the country’s energy strategic planning, Romanian Minister of Energy Victor Grigorescu announced on Oct 12.

Units 1 and 2 of Cernavoda nuclear power plant

  Modeled on unit 2, the two new reactors each have a scheduled construction period of 88 months with a total investment of about 7.2 billion euros ($7.8 billion).

CGN, China's biggest nuclear power operator, has proposed to Romania's Nuclearelectrica to construct two nuclear reactors, with a capacity of 720 MW each.

As early as in September 2010, CGN initiated its market development work for units 3 and 4 of Cernavoda NPP.

On Nov 9, 2015, CGN signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the development, construction, operation and decommissioning of units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant with Romania's Nuclearelectrica, a state-owned nuclear energy company.

It signified that CGN’s nuclear power technology will enter the European Union after the mandatory bidding process.

On Jan 20, 2016 the Romanian government wrote to CGN a letter of support outlining major areas of support and commitment associated with the project, including electricity market reform, tariff mechanisms, electricity sales, state guarantees, financial incentive policies, and the continuity of those policies.

Romanian energy security will also benefit from the development of the two units.

At present, CGN has established an international standard and specialized nuclear power production, engineering construction, research and development and nuclear supply guarantee system while actively carrying out the Chinese strategy of “going global”.

The Cernavoda project will help CGN realize its “go global” plan for China’s nuclear power technology (engineering and operating management).

The Romanian project is expected to boost the export of Chinese nuclear power equipment to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members.

In the late 1980s, Cernavoda NPP, a five-unit nuclear power plant commenced at Cernavoda, on the Danube River. Adopting Canadian CANDU6 technology, the first two units entered commercial operation in 1996 and 2009 respectively.