Romania – One of the main concerns of the energy transition in Central and Eastern Europe is to considerably reduce dependence on coal. This is one of the reasons why this issue was widely discussed at the last Three Seas Summit in Bucharest on 6 September. In the meantime, Romania has decided to deploy small modular reactors in the country and will be the first European country to do so.

The first small modular reactor in Europe will be in Romania

Indeed, as the majority state-owned Romanian nuclear energy company Nuclearelectrica SA is stating, “Romania has the potential to use for the first time in Europe the first small modular reactors and to become a catalyst for the development of SMRs in the region, but also a basis for ensuring the operation of this new type of technology in other states.” However, besides Romania, other “countries such as France, UK, Poland, Bulgaria, USA [and] Canada are [also] taking accelerated steps to implement SMRs.”

Small modular reactors (SMR) are a particular class of nuclear reactors that are smaller as traditional ones. One of their advantages is that they can be built in a factory and operated on a different site, which will make it much simpler to build several small nuclear power stations. The most advanced SMR-project is located in Hurricane (Utah, USA) and the Romanian project is going to benefit from the experience of the commissioning there.

For its part, Nuclearelectrica SA, which already operates a Nuclear Power Plant in Cernavodă (in the south-east of the country) and a Nuclear Fuel Plant in Pitești (116 km north-west of Bucharest) has over 26 years of experience in the nuclear energy domain. Currently, nuclear energy already covers 20% of Romanian energy needs.

The Romanian Commission for Nuclear Activities Control gave a

In August 2023, the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN) of Romania “issued the official approval letter […] as confirmation of the Licensing Basis Document conformity with the national regulatory requirements” which opened the way for the realisation of the project.

As announced by the American NuScale Power Corporation and Nuclearelectrica, “the location of the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Romania [will be] the site of the former thermal power plant in Doicești,” located in the Dâmbovița County, 90 km north-west of Bucharest. This NuScale plant that should be deployed during the coming decade (by 2028) is a 462 MWe NuScale VOYGR-6 power plant with six modules and will generate 193 permanent jobs and 1500 during the construction.