Romania's On-Off-On-Off-On-Off On Cernovoda 3 & 4 CANDU Nuclear Reactors On Again.

[NNadir]

Romania has two operable nuclear reactors, Cernovoda 1 and 2, both heavy water (CANDU) reactors. During the regime of the appalling dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who contracted for the first two completed reactors, 3 and 4 were contracted.

Nicolae Ceaușescu's fall led to the cancellation of work on 3 and 4, on which construction was well under way, and reactor 5 which was in an earlier stage of construction.

Reactors 1 & 2 provide about 20% of the nation's electricity overall. As of this writing, 3/16/23 19:53 (US, EST), 1:53 Bucharest time, nuclear power is providing 17.69% of Romania's electricity, with its reactors operating near 100% capacity utilization. Right now the wind is blowing in Romania; they do have wind infrastructure, but it's unreliable and all of it will be landfill within 25 years. Right now, Romania plans to run its Candus for 60 years; as we are seeing in Canada, refurbishment of CANDUS can further extend their lifetimes. When the wind isn't blowing, like Germany which has shut the majority of its reactors and replaced them with coal, Romania burns coal and gas.



Electricity Map Romania

In 1989, with the fall of Ceaușescu reactors 3, 4 and 5 were cancelled. There was a brief effort to restart construction of 3 and 4 in the 2000's but the financing fell through.

While the Germans don't give a rat's ass about climate change, elevating their irrational fears of radiation over the destruction of the planetary atmosphere, apparently Romania feels differently.

The Romanian government wants to restart 3 and 4. 5 is still held in abeyance.

Romania adopts support agreement law for Cernavoda 3 and 4

Excerpts:

Nuclearelectrica has welcomed the adoption of the law approving a support agreement with Romania's government for the proposed units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. The firm said it allows the start of the next phase of the project.

Cosmin Ghita, Nuclearelectrica CEO, said the project would not be able to go ahead "without the involvement of the state and authorities in nuclear energy projects ... today’s vote is a concrete signal for the continuation of this strategic project for Romania, by which we will add another 10 TWh of CO2-free energy to the national energy system after 2031".

He said Nuclearelectrica was looking to combine investment in the new units with refurbishment of unit 1 and development of small modular reactors, saying "efficient, safe and clean nuclear energy will make Romania an example at regional and global level, through various support partnerships associated with major investment projects".

The commitments given by the law include the government taking "the necessary steps to finance the construction of the two reactors, including but not limited to the granting of state guarantees to the project's financiers". It will also be responsible for the implementation of the "Contracts for Difference" support mechanism.

Nuclearelectrica said that the adoption of the law means Phase II of the project can now get under way - which includes steps relating to updating the project budget, structuring financing and getting European Commission approval as well as Nuclear Safety Authorisation for the construction phase and taking the final investment decision to move to Phase III, the construction phase.

The second phase of the project is scheduled to take up to 30 months, with construction estimated to take up to 78 months. Unit 3 is scheduled to start commercial operation in 2030 and Unit 4 the following year...

The bold is mine, to emphasize why Romania is proceeding.

They do give far more than a rat's ass about climate change.

The Cernovoda reactors are the only heavy water reactors in Europe and thus are a tremendous resource for the continent, inasmuch as they can extend uranium resources by recovering the uranium from the used nuclear fuel in the DUPIC fuel cycle, that is they can run on uranium that requires no mining, and encourages the additional use of used nuclear fuel, treating it as a resource rather than a problem. Moreover this once through uranium contains the unnatural uranium isotope U-236, which is the precursor of neptunium-237, a very valuable isotope for making nuclear fuel unusable in nuclear weapons rather like methanol makes ethanol unsuitable for drinking, denaturing.

As I noted elsewhere, the CANDU has the potential of reaching very high "burn ups" - greatly extending the fuel economy of nuclear reactors - by synergistically incorporating thorium into a plutonium/uranium based cycle: There's a pretty big deal going on for the future of Canadian Nuclear Fuel.

This option would also be available to Romania.

It would benefit all of humanity to have 3 & 4, and eventually 5, completed.

Romania also plans to build small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).

Like Poland, they don't really have clean energy, but also like Poland, they have a viable and realistic plan to do something about that.

[John ONeill]

1. Lead-cooled reactor

Romania is supposed to be the site where the prototype 'Alfred' lead-cooled reactor will be built. The company leading the project is Italian, but since the failure of then-Prime Minister Berlusconi's referendum to make nuclear legal in Italy again, they've had to offshore some of their work. Romania and Italy have a cultural affinity through their Latin-based languages.
The original referendum that destroyed the Italian nuclear power sector was right after Chernobyl, while the Berlusconi referendum trying to reverse it was just after both Fukushima, and a scandal involving Berlusconi himself and teenage girls.
The new right-wing Italian government is too Trumpish for my taste, but it shares his liking for nuclear.

[NNadir]

2. At different times, I've been fond of lead coolant, not so...

...much LBE eutectics, but pure lead, which in a neutron flux will evolve toward LBE owing to the transmutation of lead-208 into Pb-209 which rapidly decays to Bi-209.

There was lot of talk about lead coolants a few years back, a Soviet era technology, but I haven't been hearing a lot about it, perhaps because I'm not paying attention. From my perspective it sure beats sodium.

One of the things about which my son's Ph.D advisor complains is the reliance on doing everything in nuclear materials based on habit and tradition. Sodium coolants are an egregious case. I'm saddened by the sodium coolant revival. Lead is better for a lot of reasons.

All this said, my interest in high temperature fast spectrum coolants has changed, not that my opinion matters unless at some point in his career my son takes these ideas up after I kick off. I've moved back toward salt focused eutectics, not Flibe, but something very different.

It's interesting to see lead coolants being considered in Romania. I wasn't aware of that. It's fine by me. I'd love to see Romania become the next France. Poland also has a shot. Like France in the 1960s, Poland is entirely coal dependent, and like 1960s France, they are serious about doing something about it.

Any country that outlaws nuclear energy is a climate outlaw in my opinion.