CEZ withdraws from Cernavoda project in search of less risky opportunities

Czech power group CEZ has decided to withdraw from the shareholder structure of Romania’s EnergoNuclear to search for less risky business opportunities in the region, an official of CEZ Romania said Tuesday. "CEZ's board has already approved the decision," Adrian Borotea, corporate business manager with CEZ Romania, told Mediafax newswire. The withdrawal procedures would be completed by December this year. Romania, through state-owned nuclear energy company Nuclearelectrica, controls 51 percent in EnergoNuclear, a joint venture set up to build two new reactors at the country's sole nuclear power plant in Cernavoda. CEZ, Italy's Enel, German RWE and Belgian-French group GDF Suez each own 9.15 percent in the joint venture, while ArcelorMittal Romania and Spanish Iberdrola control 6.2 percent of its shares each. Mid-September, EnergoNuclear has launched renegotiation procedures for the construction of the two nukes in Cernavoda, as the current agreement expires on September 24. The third and fourth reactors in Cernavoda are set to become operational in 2017.The Cernavoda power plant covers around 20 percent of the country's electricity production. Mediafax