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Cernavodă nuclear power plant

Cernavodă nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in Romania with 2 operating units totalling 1,411 MW gross. The site has 5 units on record in total.

Operating1Pre-construction1circle area ∝ site capacitydashed = approximate position Coastlines, borders and lakes: Natural Earth (1:10 million, public domain), which is generalised, so a coastal plant can sit a couple of kilometres off its true shoreline. Site positions: Global Nuclear Power Tracker.
Units on record
5
Operating
2
Operating capacity
1,411MW
Country

Units

UnitStatusTypeModelGross MWOnline
Unit 1 Operating PHWR CANDU 6 706 1996
Unit 2 Operating PHWR CANDU 6 705 2007
Unit 3 Pre-construction PHWR CANDU 6 720 2031
Unit 4 Pre-construction PHWR CANDU 6 720 2032
Unit 5 Cancelled PHWR CANDU 6 706 -

Unit by unit

Each unit's rating, type and milestone dates as recorded by the Global Nuclear Power Tracker, with any correction we made to it. A dash or "not disclosed" means the source does not give the value.

Cernavodă nuclear power plant 1 Operating

Reactor typePressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
ModelCANDU 6
Size classLarge
Gross capacity706MW
Net capacity650MW
Thermal output2,180MWt
EnrichmentNatural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required
NSSS vendorAtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)
OwnerComertului Si Mediului De Afaceri100%
Ministerul Economiei
OperatorSocietatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica
Construction start31 Mar 1983
First criticality16 Apr 1996
Grid connection11 Jul 1996
Commercial operation2 Dec 1996

Cernavodă nuclear power plant 2 Operating

Reactor typePressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
ModelCANDU 6
Size classLarge
Gross capacity705MW
Net capacity650MW
Thermal output2,180MWt
EnrichmentNatural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required
NSSS vendorAtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)
OwnerComertului Si Mediului De Afaceri100%
Ministerul Economiei
OperatorSocietatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica
Construction start1 Jul 1983
First criticality6 May 2007
Grid connection7 Aug 2007
Commercial operation1 Nov 2007

Cernavodă nuclear power plant 3 Pre-construction

Reactor typePressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
ModelCANDU 6
Size classLarge
Gross capacity720MW
Net capacitynot disclosed
Thermal outputnot disclosed
EnrichmentNatural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required
NSSS vendorAtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)
OwnerEnergoNuclear SA100%
OperatorSocietatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica
Construction start1 Jan 2024
Commercial operation1 Jan 2031

Cernavodă nuclear power plant 4 Pre-construction

Reactor typePressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
ModelCANDU 6
Size classLarge
Gross capacity720MW
Net capacitynot disclosed
Thermal outputnot disclosed
EnrichmentNatural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required
NSSS vendorAtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)
OwnerEnergoNuclear SA100%
OperatorSocietatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica
Commercial operation1 Jan 2032

Cernavodă nuclear power plant 5 Cancelled

Reactor typePressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
ModelCANDU 6
Size classLarge
Gross capacity706MW
Net capacitynot disclosed
Thermal outputnot disclosed
EnrichmentNatural uranium, 0.71% U-235no enrichment required
NSSS vendorAtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)
Cancelled1991
Construction start1 Jan 1980

Cernavodă nuclear power plant in context

Cernavodă nuclear power plant is the only operating nuclear site in Romania on record, so it holds all of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 117th of 172 operating sites worldwide by gross capacity.

Its operating units started up between 1996 and 2007; the median unit is 24.5 years old.

The 2 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 13.3 to 24.1 years (median 18.7) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 2000s is 6.8 years.

No other nuclear site with an exact position in this dataset lies within 300 km.

Build time by unit

UnitConstruction startGrid connectionYearsFleet median, same decade
Unit 11983199613.38.0 (1990s)
Unit 21983200724.16.8 (2000s)

How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.

Site detail
LocationConstanța, Romania
Coordinates44.3205, 28.0598
Elevationabout 30 mabove sea level
Setting45.6 km from the sea
RegionEastern Europe
Units by status
Operating: 2
Pre-construction: 2
Cancelled: 1

Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.

Owners & operators
Owners
Ministerul Economiei
Comertului Si Mediului De Afaceri
EnergoNuclear SA
Operators
Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica

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Sources

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