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Feasibility study sought for Cernavoda expansion project

Wednesday, 5 August 2020

Romania has launched a tender for a new feasibility study to complete units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant for which it is prepared to pay up to RON1 million (USD245,000). There is also the option of a single unit being put up for auction, according to a report by Economica.Net.

Feasibility study sought for Cernavoda expansion project — Cernavoda units 3 and 4 (Image: Nuclearelectrica)

Romania plans to create a Strategic Coordination Committee for the project to build the units, according to a notice in the government's official gazette on 14 July. The notice followed another published the same day, stating that the prime minister's 2018 decision to establish a working group for the negotiation of a draft intergovernmental agreement between Romania and China for the project had been abrogated.

The tender for a feasibility study, which was published on 29 July, lists the following requirements:

An updated electricity price and demand forecast;
An updated project cost estimate together with a calculation methodology;
An updated financial model for the project that takes into account the current situation in both the energy and construction services markets;
New relevant technical information obtained from other studies developed by SN Nuclearelectrica SA or EnergoNuclear SA, since 2012;
Updated information regarding the infrastructure of the Romanian electric transmission network and new interconnection lines;
Recertification of the technical feasibility of the project;
Identification of the support mechanisms necessary for the implementation of the project (for example Contracts-for-Difference, Capital Work in Progress, State Guarantees, etc.). The updated feasibility study will also include a financial analysis for the completion of Cernavoda unit 3 only.

Consultants interested in updating the feasibility study must submit their bid by 11 August. The award of the contract will be based on "best value for money, of which 40% will be based on the price and 60% on the technical component", according to the Economica.Net article.

Cernavoda NPP is the only nuclear power plant in Romania and consists of two 650 MWe pressurised heavy-water reactors. Unit 1 went into commercial operation in 1996 and unit 2 in 2007. Operator Nuclearelectrica plans to extend the operating life of unit 1 to 60 years.

Most of the work on units 3 and 4 was done in the 1980s prior to the fall of the government of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.