[ad_1]
The Minister of Economy, Virgil Popescu, will meet on Friday in the United States with the Secretary of Energy of the United States, Dan Brouillette, to launch an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement for the remodeling of one of the two nuclear reactors of Cernavoda and for the renovation of the building where two new reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, the US ambassador in Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman, announced on Thursday.
Is $ 8 billion project it will represent “a paradigm of future Romanian-American projects for economic and energy development,” Ambassador Zuckerman said in a recorded speech broadcast at the Bucharest Forum, an international policy event organized online by the Aspen Institute in Bucharest.
Minister Virgil Popescu will also meet with EXIM (Export-Import Bank of the United States) President Kimberley Reed to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at financing the Cernavoda nuclear project and other projects in Romania.
“It is the largest financing package received by Romania so far, which indicates the trust that the United States has in its long-time partner and ally,” said Adrian Zuckerman.
Government plans for the Cernavoda power plant
At the end of July, the prime minister Ludovic Orban declares that the government has in mind investments worth 8 to 9 billion euros at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, both for remodeling of reactor 1, as well as for construction of reactors 3 and 4.
Asked about the year of completion of the works on reactors 3 and 4, Ludovic Orban said that 2030 is still the deadline.
„We have already taken important steps, we are thinking about potential partners, negotiating the conditions to make them as favorable as possible for Romania, the financing scheme for these investments and, certainly, the 2030 deadline is a deadline we have for the completion of the reactors 3 and 4“, a He said Orban.
In turn, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, has stated on several occasions lately that he strongly supports the construction of reactors 3 and 4 of Cernavoda and that he wants them to be done with partners from the European Union and NATO, reports Agerpres. “We have been talking about reactors 3 and 4 for too long. I have been saying since last year that we have to make these reactors and I want to make them and we will make them with partners from the European Union and NATO. We are in this European club and in this NATO club and I think we have enough funding sources there so that we can get by without the contribution of other third country funding sources to this club. I am very optimistic that we will be able to start these investments in Cernavoda with partners from the European Union and NATO, ”said the minister in May.
Collaboration with the Chinese, interrupted in June
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban ordered the establishment of the Strategic Coordination Committee for the implementation of the Project Units 3 and 4 of CN Cernavoda, through a decision published in July in the Official Gazette. The committee is chaired by the Minister of Economy, Virgil Popescu. The advisory body also includes Florin Cîţu, Minister of Public Finance, Cosmin Marinescu, Presidential Advisor and Ionel Dancă, Head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery. The main objectives of the Committee are the analysis, crystallization and justification of the strategic decisions and the necessary measures for the implementation of Project Units 3 and 4 Cernavoda NPP.
In June, the Board of Directors of Societatea Nazionale Nuclearelectrica SA received the mandate to initiate the procedures to terminate the negotiations with China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), as well as the legal effects in relation to the memorandum of understanding concluded in 2015 for the construction and operation of the units. 3 and 4 of CN Cernavoda.
The partnership between Nuclearelectrica and the Chinese group began in November 2015 with the signing of a memorandum worth 6.5 billion euros for the development of reactors 3 and 4 in Cernavoda.
Editor: Luana Pavaluca
