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Sebastian Burduja: The two new nuclear reactors would cost about $7 billion
The two new reactors the company Nuclearelectrica has in mind would cost at least 6.5 billion euro ( 7.29 billion dollars), said on Wednesday the minister of energy, Sebastian Burduja in an interview for Reuters.
Burduja added that Nuclearelectrica has negotiations with the Canadian group Lavalin who owns the Candu technology used for the first two reactors in Cernavoda unit, the objective being signing an agreement at the end of the year.
Nuclearelectrica wants to modernize one of the two existing reactors and at the same time to build another two new units by using the same Candu technology (Canada deuterium uranium) which uses heavy water for cooling and natural uranium instead of enriched uranium as fuel.
Besides the negotiation on the prices, in order to keep in mind the evolution of inflation, the discussions include the structure of the financing and the way in which the existing infrastructure could be modernized in agreement with the requirements formulated after the accident in Fukushima in 2011.
The previous cost estimates for the two new reactors varied between six and seven billion euro. Sebastian Burduja said that a final decision for investments which refer to the construction of the new reactors would be adopted in 2026 – 2027.
US bank Exim Bank U.S. will provide a $3 billion loan for the two new reactors and the energy minister added that there will also be financing from Canada and South Korea via similar mechanisms. Burduja said that other foreign partners, such as the United Arab Emirates, are also likely to finance the new reactors project.
Thanks to the new reactors, the share of atomic energy in Romania's energy mix will increase to a third and this will allow Romania to supply electricity to the Republic of Moldova as well.
The Ministry of Economy controls 80% of Nuclearelectrica, a company with a market capitalisation of 13.7 billion lei.