EC to examine Romanian plans for funding reactor refurbishment

In January, Romania notified the EC of its plan to support the refurbishment of Cernavoda 1 reactor, which began commercial operation in 1996 and currently supplies about 10% of the country's electricity. The beneficiary of the support is Nuclearelectrica, the owner and operator of the Cernavoda plant, which is majority-owned by the Romanian State and the only nuclear power operator in the country. The estimated nominal value of the project is EUR3.2 billion (USD3.8 billion).

Romania plans to support the refurbishment of the nuclear unit through four measures: a grant of EUR600 million; state guarantees for loans taken to finance the investment; a two-way contract for difference (CfD) running for 30 years to provide stable revenues to the plant; and a protection mechanism for regulatory changes during construction and operation.

"At this stage, based on its preliminary assessment, the Commission has found the project necessary and considers that the aid facilitates the development of an economic activity," the EC said. "Nevertheless, the Commission has doubts on whether the measure is fully in line with EU State aid rules."

It has therefore decided to open an in-depth investigation in relation to: the appropriateness and proportionality of the aid package; the impact of the measure on competition in the market and whether this is kept to the minimum; and the compliance with other provisions of EU law, "in particular with the design principles set out in Article 19d(2) of the Electricity Regulation as regards the CfD".

Cernavoda consists of two 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.

In December 2024, the company signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the refurbishment with a consortium of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, AtkinsRéalis's Candu Energy, Canadian Commercial Corporation and Ansaldo Nucleare. In September last year, Nuclearelectrica signed a EUR540 million financing contract with a banking syndicate led by JP Morgan for the refurbishment. Under a contract signed in October last year, France's Arabelle Solutions will provide equipment and services for the refurbishment of Cernavoda 1’s turbine-generator, as part of the 30-year life extension project.

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.