CEZ Says Construction Of Romanian Nukes 3, 4 To Be Delayed By 1-Year

„The Government did not get in touch with us yet. The project will be delayed by one year, talks will restart, the final draft of the project should be approved by the present or future Government, considering the upcoming elections,” CEZ Romania’s development director Doru Voicu said.

The construction of the two new reactors is due to begin in 2009 and was expected to be finalized in 2015.

End-June, the government decided that state-owned nuclear energy company Nuclearelectrica will own a 51% stake in the joint venture that will build nuclear reactors three and four at Cernavoda.

The authorities have initially established that Nuclearelectrica would own a 20% stake in the new joint venture, changing afterwards the participation into a 51% stake.

The Romanian authorities said the value of the investment rose to EUR4 billion from EUR2.2 billion.

In 2007, the authorities selected six companies for the construction of nuclear reactors three and four at Cernavoda. The companies are: Czech Cez AS (BAACEZ.PR); Belgium’s Electrabel; Italy’s

Enel SpA (ENEL.MI); ArcelorMittal’s Romanian unit (MS); Germany’s RWE AG (RWE.XE) and Spain’s Iberdola SA (IBDRY).

The power plant in Cernavoda operated by state-owned Nuclearelectrica already has two 700-megawatts reactors and provides around 18% of Romania’s generation needs. The plant was initially designed to have five reactors, each with 700 megawatts.