Romania Vies To Fill Investor Gap In Nuclear Reactor Project

Romania’s nuclear reactors 3 and 4 still lack a “clearly established” investor, despite “pretty interesting” talks over the past several months with potential partners, Tuesday said Economy Ministry state secretary Karoly Borbely.

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Four of Europe's major utilities groups recently walked out on the project, after signing investment agreements in 2008.

The four groups, namely Czech CEZ, German RWE, Spanish Iberdrola and French-Belgian GDF-Suez, cited the slow pace of progress and bulky local procedures for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Romania's sole nuclear power plant Cernavoda.

"Right now, the decision is to continue talks with investors for this project," Borbely said during the MEDIAFAX Talks About Energy conference.

A 2008 estimation shows the project would require an investment of EUR4 billion, and the deadline was pushed back to 2019.

The project company, EnergoNuclear, is 85.6% controlled by the Cernavoda plant operator, state-owned Nuclearelectrica. Other shareholders include ArcelorMittal Romania and Italian group Enel.

The two reactors will have installed powers of 720 MW each, and they will double production capacity at Cernavoda.

The Economy Ministry announced last week that a consortium formed of South Korean companies KEPCO International Nuclear and Global Em Power Sistem Nuclear showed an interest in building the two reactors.

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