While announcing more than a dozen trade deals reached between China and Romania Monday, the countries finalized two nuclear cooperation agreements related to new reactors proposed at Romania's Cernavoda power plant.
China General Nuclear Power Group had expressed interest in the project last year. While the parties offered few details, Agence France Presse reported that the agreements included a letter of intent between CGN and Romania's NuclearElectrica.
New investment on the part of Chinese companies has the potential to rekindle efforts to build two additional Candu 6 heavy water reactors at the plant on the Danube River. In 2010 and 2011 EnergoNuclear – a consortium formed around the project – lost participation from CEZ, GDF Suez, RWE and Iberdrola. According to the World Nuclear Association, that left NuclearElectrica with nearly 85 percent ownership of the project, compared to 51 percent initially. Efforts to raise further funding in 2011 and 2012 were unsuccessful, although CGN expressed tentative interest in investing in the reactors and supplying systems for them. The project had received approval from the European Commission in 2010. Since then, Bechtel, a Russian consortium and a consortium led by SNC Lavalin indicated they would bid for the engineering work.