Argentina's Nucleoeléctrica signs MoU relating to life extension project in Romania

It says that the company is aiming to "expand its revenue streams, generate foreign exchange, and project the expertise developed by the Argentine nuclear industry internationally".

Both Romania's Cernavoda plant and the Embalse plant in Argentina feature Candu reactors. Nucleoeléctrica said "this shared technological base positions Nucleoeléctrica as a partner with direct and proven experience in the type of projects that Romania intends to undertake".

A life extension project has already been undertaken at Embalse, with Cernavoda currently undergoing its own project to extend its lifetime by 30 years.

Background

Candu units are pressurised heavy water reactors designed to operate for 30 years, with a further 30 years available subject to refurbishment. This includes the replacement of key reactor components such as steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes. It involves removing all the reactor's fuel and heavy water and isolating it from the rest of the power station before it is dismantled. Thousands of components, including those that are not accessible when the reactor is assembled, are inspected, and all 480 fuel channels and 960 feeder tubes are replaced during the high-precision rebuild.

The Cernavoda plant consists of two operating 650 MWe Candu-6 reactors. Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 1996 and unit 2 in 2007. Nuclearelectrica plans to extend the operating life of unit 1 to 60 years. The unit 1 refurbishment project began in 2017 and is currently in the second of three phases. The third phase, scheduled for 2027 to 2029, starts with the shutdown of unit 1 and includes all the work required on it, and its recommissioning.

Embalse, which entered commercial operation in 1984, was shut down at the end of 2015 for life extension work, which included reactor retubing and replacing the steam generators. It also included a 6% increase of the plant's capacity to 683 MWe. It returned to commercial operation in 2019 with a further 30 years of operation.

Argentina's government said earlier this year that exports were one of four key objectives for its nuclear sector. In November last year Nucleoeléctrica and Canada's Candu Energy Inc, part of AtkinsRéalis, signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate globally on "providing engineering, technical assistance, and maintenance services for Candu-type nuclear power plants".