Romania Extending Life Cycle of Reactor 1 of Nuclear Power Plant Cernavoda and Expanding Waste Disposal Site – Serbia Has a Say as a Potentially Jeopardized Party

The Ministry of Environment, Water Forests of Romania has filed to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Serbia a request for the deciding on the participation of the Republic of Serbia, as a potentially jeopardized party, in the procedure of the environmental impact assessment of the project of the renewal of the capacities of the only Romanian nuclear power plant, Cernavoda.

The project pertains to the reconstruction of Reactor 1 to the end of extending its life cycle and the expansion of the storage of spent medium-dry nuclear fuel from reactors 1 and 2.

The reconstruction of the reactor entails the replacement of the equipment of the existing reactor assembly – the Romanians are first to shut down Reactor 1, let the nuclear fuel out, and then drain and dry out the reactor, decontaminate it and replace the obsolete components of the reactor. The reconstruction, according to the project, will extend the life cycle of the reactor by another 30 years.

When it comes to the storage site, the location is nearly to double, from 24,000 m2 to 40,000 m2, and a larger number of modules for the storage of waste from the reactors will be built.

The request was filed to Serbia considering that Cernavoda, which is located at the very end of the Danube’s flow, 421 kilometers from the Serbian border in a straight line, as well as to the competent ministries of Bulgaria, which is only 36 kilometers away from Cernavoda, and Moldova, Ukraine and even Hungary, which is the most remote from it.

The reconstructed Reactor 1 will have an installed power of 706.5 MW, a thermal power of 2,062 megawatt-tons, and during its new life cycle, it will deliver around 151,668,193 MWh of electricity to the national energy sector.

According to the website of the Romanian state company Nuclearelectrica, Cernavoda is being reconstructed in cooperation with the USA.

B. Petrovic

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Ministry of Environment Water and Forests of Romania

SN Nuclearelectrica SA Bucharest

Nuclear Power Plant Cernavoda

Cernavoda

Romanian nuclear power plant

reactor 1

renewal

reconstruction

nuclear waste storage

expansion

environmental protection

nuclear accidents