Romania expects to agree contract for two nuclear reactors in October (updated)

Fluor

24/07/2024 14:17

(Adds minister comments, updates throughout)
    By Luiza Ilie
       BUCHAREST, July 24 (Reuters) - Romania expects to sign
an engineering contract with a consortium of four companies in
October that will put two planned nuclear reactors on a "point
of no return," Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said on
Wednesday. 
    The European Union nation's state-owned nuclear power
producer Nuclearelectrica  ROSNN.BX  currently has two
706-megawatt (MW) reactors which use Canadian CANDU technology,
owned by AtkinsRealis, formerly known as SNC Lavalin group,
accounting for a fifth of the country's power production. 
    The company plans to add two more 700 MW reactors using the
same technology and is negotiating the project's main
engineering contract with a consortium comprising AtkinsRealis,
U.S. Fluor Corporation, Sargent & Lundy and Italy’s Ansaldo
Nucleare. 
    "We'll submit an offer for the most important contract in
that project, and we expect that ... we will have that contract
signed in October at the latest," Burduja told Reuters.
    "That will essentially put the project on a point of no
return, and we'll deliver Unit 3 in 2031 and Unit 4 in 2032."
    Accurate costs and a financing structure will be known once
negotiations end, but Exim Bank U.S. has committed funding for
the project. Prior cost estimates for the units ranged from 6.5
billion to 7 billion euros ($7.1-$7.6 billion) in total.  
    Separately, Nuclearelectrica aims to build a small modular
reactor plant (SMR) using technology from U.S. firm NuScale
Power  SMR.N , which could become Europe's first project using
the technology. 
    On Wednesday, Romania signed an agreement with Fluor
Corporation for a second-phase engineering study which will put
the project on track for deployment in 2029. Burduja said the
study and cost estimate would be completed by the end of 2025. 
    The two new reactors and the SMR project would double
Romania's nuclear power capacity as it aims to cut its carbon
emissions to meet EU reduction goals and bolster energy
security, a more urgent issue since Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.
    "In the context of the energy transition to us, medium to
long term ... nuclear energy is the answer," Burduja said.
    ($1 = 0.9220 euros)

 (Reporting by Luiza Ilie, Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((luiza.ilie@thomsonreuters.com; +4021 527 0312; https://www.reuters.com/journalists/luiza-ilie))