Romania’s state-owned company Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica (SNN) has awarded a contract to Candu Energy, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, to assess 700MW unit 1 of the Cernavoda nuclear plant in Romania.
Under the $10.8m contract, Candu Energy will be responsible for engineering analyses and assessments on the Cernavoda Unit 1 CANDU nuclear reactor.
SNC-Lavalin nuclear president Sandy Taylor said: “SNC-Lavalin looks forward to continuing our long relationship with SNN to optimize the operation of Cernavoda Unit 1 in preparation for a refurbishment that will contribute to over 60 years of CANDU reactor life.
“Our dedicated project execution team has exceptional expertise in this area, having completed similar assessments for several CANDU clients around the world.”
The contract aims to extend operating life of Cernavoda unit 1 by four years
Focused on the fuel channel and feeders assemblies, the contract is aimed at extending the operational life of the nuclear power plant by approximately four years.
SNC-Lavalin said that the contract would result in up to 245,000 effective full power hours (EFPH) from the original design life of 210,000 EFPH.
SNN CEO Cosmin Ghita said: “SNN is looking forward to extending the operating life of the station with an additional 35,000 hours and we are looking forward to doing this by continuing the long-term partnership with SNC-Lavalin.
“We are keen on optimizing operation and production until the effective refurbishment of Cernavoda NPP Unit 1.”
The extension will allow the facility to continue operating safely until its refurbishment scheduled in 2026.
The Cernavoda Unit 1 has the capacity to produce the electricity required to power about 10% of Romania’s electricity demands.
Commissioned and began commercial full-power operation in December 1996, the power plant has avoided CO2 emissions of more than four million tonnes per year that would have been produced by a fossil fuel plant.
In October 2019, SNC-Lavalin and its partner Ansaldo Nucleare secured a contract from SNN for the condition assessment work to determine the scope of repair and replacement of other equipment as part of the Cernavoda Unit 1 refurbishment outage.
