OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2014. Romania’s Energy Minister Razvan Nicolescu said this to Romania Libera when answering the questions about the launch of the building works for the 3rd and the 4th reactors at NPP at Cernavoda and about Romania’s share in the joint Romania-China company to fulfil the works.

As he noted, the negotiations between Romania's authorities and the Chinese company had not been completed yet and it had not been clear what body would hold a majority stake in the enterprise. ‘I want a company from the Republic of Moldova to become a shareholder too, even if it will hold the smallest stake.

According to Razvan Nicolescu, who refers to Romania’s company Transelectrica, only by investing in Moldova, Romania will be able to export some 600 MW to our country. As for a major shareholder in the Romanian-Chinese company, he said the parties were looking for a win-win solution. “We have invested about USD1 billion in Cernavoda and this fact should be taken into account”, the Romanian Minister noted. NPP Cernavoda is the only nuclear plant of Romania, which generates about 20% of the power consumed by the country.

The first reactor of NPP was launched in 1996, the construction of the 3rd and the 4th ones to be completed by 2016-2017. In November, 2008 Nuclearelectrica (Romania), ArcelorMittal, CEZ Group, GDF Suez, Enel, Iberdrola and RWE came to an agreement to establish a joint company to complete the construction of reactors NN 3 and 4, to put them into service and to maintain their operation. However, on January, 20, 2011, GDF Suez, Iberdrola and RWE left the project. In September, 2012, they were followed by CEZ Group.

In October, 2014, China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) won the contract on the construction of reactors 3 and 4. Earlier, it was announced that China General Nuclear Power Group was acquiring a share in NPP Cernavoda, at which two new nuclear reactors estimated at more than EUR 4 billion would be constructed.