Publication Laka-library:
Exporting Nuclear Risks. Canada, Italy and EU's responsibilities in subsidizing nuclear export to Romania
| Author | Tricarico, Pasyuk, Bankwatch |
| Date | February 2002 |
| Classification | 2.29.9.90/03 (ROMANIA - FACILITIES) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
1. Background information on Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) The Cernavoda NPP was originally conceived in the Ceausescu era. The original design included four units, but as reported by several Romanian nuclear experts a fifth unit was added to the project design surprisingly and without any specific technical reasons after a visit of the dictator to the plant site. The fifth unit cannot lay in line with the other four because of geological reasons concerning the specific characteristics of the ground at the plant site. The choice to request CANDU technology by the Romanian Dictator was taken mainly not on technical and economic grounds, but mainly for political reasons in order not to make Romania dependant on other countries for the import of uranium enriched fuel. This kind of fuel is not needed instead in the case of CANDU reactors, which can use natural-uranium UO2 fuel coming from Romanian mines. Therefore, the Romanian dictator allowed the establishment of a close partnership with the Canadian nuclear industry since the 80s. Since then Canadian procedures and standards have been regarded as reference guidelines for the new Romanian nuclear industry. According to the official NPP guide who toured the Fact-Finding Mission at the first operating unit of the NPP, Ceausescu originally wanted to use as much Romanian nuclear supplies as possible. However research and development of nuclear technology took too much time and resources, so that Ceausescu realised that it was not realistic to develop Romanian nuclear industry without support from western countries. As reported by several NGO representatives, from 1983 to the revolution in early 1990 nuclear activities at Cernavoda were under the direct control of security police. As a matter of the fact, the whole state-owned nuclear industry was under the competence of the Interior Minister at that time. Since 1990 former security officials still exert a strong control on the nuclear industry and in general keep a significant power in Romanian society and politics. In the last years national newspapers reported several scandals around nuclear activities. For instance, in 1997 two containers of nuclear fuel coming from Canada arrived unsealed to the Cernavoda NPP. According to the National Nuclear Regulator (CNCAN), after that Canadian experts agreed that nuclear fuel prepared in Romania could have better characteristics and performance than Canadian fuel, now only Romanian fuel is being used at the Cernavoda NPP. It should be noted that CNCAN is responsible for the nuclear safety related to all artificial radiation sources and the CNCAN representative claimed the agency to be independent. The head of CNCAN has a status equal to the one of the state secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environmental Protection. Salaries of the CNCAN staff are funded from the State budget while the rest of the budget comes from licensing fees. Reportedly, the license fee for Cernavoda the first Unit of the Cernavoda NPP accounts to 10% of the agency income.
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