South-Korean consortium shows interest in Romania's Cernavoda nuclear developments

Soon after a Chinese company showed interest in Romania's nuclear energy project Cernavoda, a South Korean consortium stated its interest too. South-Korean company BKB Co. Ltd., the leader of the Korea Nuclear consortium is interested in investing in Romania’s planned new nuclear reactors, according to Romania's Economy Ministry. BKB sent a letter of intent to express its interest in acquiring a stake in EnergoNuclear SA, the company which will build the third and fourth nuclear reactors at the country's Cernavoda plant. Moreover, BKB's representative plan a visit to Romania to hold technical discussions, according to the ministry's statement. This came soon after Chinese company China Nuclear Power Engineering has shown interest to invest in Romania’s 3 and 4 Cernavoda nuclear reactors and said it would sign a confidentiality agreement in October, allowing the Chinese company to continue negotiations for this project. Works on this project should start in 2013 and be ended in August 2019, two years after the previously announced deadline. This came after RWE, Iberdrola and GDF Suez gave up on the project and sold their stakes in EnergoNuclear, the Cernavoda project company, to state- owned Nuclearelectrica, for EUR 4 million. The Cernavoda 3 and 4 reactors project is estimated at around EUR 4 billion. The state owns 85 percent in the project, through Nuclearelectrica. After a private investor will be attracted in the project, the state’s stake will diminish to 40 percent. Romania currently has two nuclear reactors in Cernavoda, each with an installed capacity of 720 MW. The two new reactors should bring an annual energy supply of 11 TWh to Romania’s power grid. editor@romania-insider.com