Romania canceled an agreement with China General Nuclear Energy Group (CGN) on building two new units at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in the southeast of the country. The shareholders of Nuclearelectrica, which owns most of the stakes in the Romanian state, decided to abandon the cooperation project with the Chinese side permanently.
According to a statement sent by the company to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the shareholders have “instructed the board of directors to start the procedures for ending negotiations with CGN and the legal implications” of the documents.
Romania has to search for other investors to expand its nuclear plant, and the project is estimated to cost six billion euros. CGN was the only candidate to build the third and fourth units in Cernavoda during a request for proposals opened in Bucharest in 2014. Both companies signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 and a preliminary agreement in May 2019. However, the United States placed the Chinese group on a “blacklist” of companies accusing them of seeking to steal US technologies for military use. American exports to CGN are banned.
At the end of May, Romanian Economic Minister Virgil Popescu indicated that Romania has a strategic partnership with the United States, and this partnership impacted the Chinese investment in the country.
