Korea, Canada and Italy join together to renovate Romania’s only nuclear power plant
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), a South Korean state-owned company, signed a consortium agreement on Thursday with Canadian companies and Italy's Ansaldo Nuclear for a reactor renovation project at Romania's only nuclear power plant in Cernavodă.
The partnership will bring KHNP, Italy's Ansaldo Nucleare SpA and Canada's SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX: ATRL)-owned Candu Energy one step closer to closing a deal worth $1.87 billion for the renovation of the obsolete reactor of unit 1 of the plant. it has been operational since 1996. The reactor currently generates 700 MW/h of power.
The signing of the consortium agreement was held in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, at the headquarters of the nuclear company Nuclearelectrica.
The reactor's 30-year license will expire in 2026 and Nuclearelectrica aims to start replacing essential components from 2027, after renewing the license for another three decades.
“The three companies seek to sign a contract with the Romanian entity within the first half of next year,” KHNP told Korean media.
The Romanian nuclear reactor uses CANDU technology developed by nuclear energy company Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which licensed the project to Candu Energy in 2011 when the subsidiary was created. Candu is a well-proven technology that is based on a compressed heavy water moderation and cooling system. This fluid then comes into contact with normal water which, vaporised, is used to operate the turbines
According to Korean media, Candu and Ansaldo will be responsible for the engineering and procurement work as the reactor's original designers, while KHNP will be responsible for building a radioactive waste repository and other amenities at the plant.
Canada and Romania also signed a $3 billion deal last month to build two more CANDU reactors at the Cernavodă plant, as the Eastern European nation aims to reduce its dependence on Russian energy in the situation in Ukraine. In this way, the Romanian energy mix will move further away from its dependence on oil.
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The article Korea, Canada and Italy join together to renovate Romania's only nuclear power plant comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/corea-canada-e-italia-si-uniscono-per-ristrutturare-lunica-centrale-nucleare-rumena/ on Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:02:05 +0000.