Nuclear power plant in Romania, at 25% of its capacity due to malfunctions

The nuclear power plant at Cernavoda, Eastern Romania, closed one of its two reactors and reduced the output of the second one due to malfunctions on Sunday, March 25. Nuclearelectrica, the state company that operates the power plant, announced on Sunday morning that it had to close Unit 1 of the Cernavoda power plant due to a malfunction at one of its systems. The company estimated that the problem would be fixed within 48 hours. A few hours later, Nuclearelectrica also announced that it decreased the output at its second reactor as it needed to replace a bearing. The operation was estimated to take some 16 hours. Thus, the nuclear power plant only functioned at a quarter of its nominal power of 1,400 MW on Sunday afternoon, supplying only 5% of Romania’s electricity. The nuclear power plant at Cernavoda is an important piece of Romania’s energy system due to its constant power supply, which usually covers about 18-20% of the domestic electricity consumption. editor@romania-insider.com