Romania is reaffirming its commitment to playing a central role in the European energy transition by initiating and promoting projects to expand nuclear capacities, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said on Thursday.
According to the Energy Ministry, Burduja represented Romania at the „Roadmaps to New Nuclear 2024” event, the annual event of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), which brought together world leaders in the field of nuclear energy on Thursday at the headquarters in Paris of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
„In the area of energy, we often talk about a trilemma: energy security, competitiveness and climate change. In Paris, in the presence of OECD member states, we discussed a fourth alternative that concerns local capacities and supply chains. Romania is among the few states in the world with an integrated nuclear cycle, we have some of the best experts in the world, and the Cernavoda reactors are both on the world podium in terms of safety and efficiency in operation,” Burduja said.
At the OECD-NEA event, in recognition of its leading role in the nuclear sector, Romania chaired for the first time the sessions on supply chains and reindustrialisation.
Burduja said that Romania has the only simulator in Europe for the training of future engineers in small modular reactors (SMR) at the Bucharest Polytechnic and is also building the only detritus plant in Europe. The facility creates the premises for Romania to become a European hub for the production and export of tritium, a candidate fuel for future fusion reactors.
„In order to achieve the global goals of tripling nuclear capacities by 2050, global cooperation is essential for access to financing and a skilled workforce,” the energy minister said.
According to the Nuclear Energy Agency, in order to achieve climate and energy security goals, it is necessary to triple global nuclear capacity to 1,160 GWe by 2050. The expansion involves the construction of around 20 GWe per year between 2030 and 2050, a level of investment not seen since the massive construction of the 1970s and 1980s.
AGERPRES
