Four months after Romania halted Chinese participation in the project, the US and Romania are signing an agreement to bring Washington on board in a 8-billion-dollar project to construct two new reactors at the country’s only nuclear plant.
A view in 1998 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant, some 200 km from Bucharest. Archive photo: EPA PHOTO – EPA FILES/STR
Romania and the US on Friday are due to seal a landmark deal that will involve the US in the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant, the US ambassador to Romania, Adrian Zuckerman, announced on Thursday.
“Minister [of Economy Virgil] Popescu will meet with [US] Department of Energy Secretary [Dan] Brouillette to sign an Inter-governmental Cooperation Agreement for the refurbishment of one nuclear reactor and the building of two new reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear facility,” the US embassy website quoted Zuckerman as saying.
“This 8-billion dollar project will be a paradigm for future Romanian-American economic and energy development projects,” the US ambassador added.
The Romanian minister will also meet the president and chairwoman of the US Exim Bank, Kimberley Reed, “to execute a Memorandum of Understanding for the financing of the Cernavoda nuclear project and other projects in Romania”, Zuckerman continued.
This financing package would be “the largest ever received by Romania,” the ambassador noted, remarking that the bilateral relationship “has never been stronger”.
Respecting US wishes, in June this year Romania rescinded a preliminary agreement signed in 2015 with the China General Nuclear Power Corporation, GCNPC, to add two more units to the two reactors at the Cernavoda plant.
Romania now insisted it would be more convenient to develop such a strategic project with partners and capital from a democratic ally. In April 2016, the US Justice Department accused GCNPC of nuclear espionage.
Romania is on the way to barring another Chinese company accused of gross misconduct by the US from gaining further influence in the country.
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