Romania Concerned Over Its Partnership With Chinese Nuclear Power Company

CGN Accused of Espionage and Blacklisted in the US

General view of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, 200 km from Bucharest, taken Aug. 20, 2003. Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images

The Romanian government expressed its concern over Romania’s 5-year-old partnership with a Chinese company, China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), to build two new 700-megawatt reactors at the country’s nuclear power plant in Cernavoda. CGN has been accused of espionage and blacklisted by the United States.

“It’s obvious to me that the deal with the Chinese won’t work … We will see with which partner we’ll associate to [build reactors]. It is about partnering and financing,” Romania’s Prime Minister Ludovic Orban told Hot News, in a video interview on Jan. 19, referring to Romania’s deal with CGN. Orban added that all of Romania’s energy deals will, from now on, depend on the European Green Deal.

Plans to Expand and Modernize Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant

The construction of the Nuclear Power Plant in Cernavoda started in the 1980s, however, its first reactor was put into operation in 1996 and the second one in 2007. Both reactors were supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada (currently Candu Energy). The Cernavoda power plant supplies 18 percent of Romanian electricity.