3 billion US loan for the construction of two new units at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant

Energy Minister Virgil Popescu will receive letters of intent for two loans of $50 million and $3 billion from the president of the US Exim Bank on Wednesday for the construction of two new units of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, according to an announcement by the Presidential Administration. The ceremony in Egypt will be attended by President Klaus Iohannis and the Special Representative of the President of the United States of America for Climate, John Kerry.

Two power plants are now operating at Cernavodă and Romania wants to build two more to increase its energy independence.

The ceremony takes place on Wednesday at 10 am in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where a UN climate change summit is taking place.

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The handing over of the two letters of intent for loans from the US Exim Bank for Units 3 and 4 of the Cernavodă nuclear power plant takes place on the occasion of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).

The documents will be handed over by US Exim Bank President Reta Jo Lewis to Romanian Energy Minister Virgil Popescu.

The two letters of intent from the US Exim Bank are for a first loan of around USD 50 million to support the development of Phase 2, preliminary works, of the Units 3 and 4 projects and a subsequent loan of USD 3 billion to support Phase 3, actual construction of the project.

Background. The Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant is managed by the national company Nuclearelectrica, controlled by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Energy.

In 2020, Romania and the US signed a government-level agreement allowing Romania access to US nuclear technology, abandoning an initial plan to develop the new reactors through a partnership with China.

The 2020 visit to the US by Economy and Energy Minister Virgil Popescu led to the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation with US companies for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavodă, as well as the refurbishment of reactor 1 – the first to be built at the nuclear power plant. Minister Popescu announced that the agreement allows Romania access to American CANDU 6 technology and that the work would be carried out by a consortium of US, Canadian and French companies.

The collaboration project was announced as early as 20 August 2019, when Presidents Klaus Iohannis and Donald Trump signed a Joint Statement in Washington committing to cooperate in the civil nuclear field. Subsequently, NuclearElectrica SA, controlled by the Ministry of Economy, denounced an agreement with a Chinese company for the construction of Cernavodă.

Translated article