Energy Minister: A Cernavodă reactor could be restarted in two weeks

One of the reactors at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant could be restarted around November 15 if forecasts for the Danube’s flow rate hold, Energy Minister Dumitru Chisăliță said in an interview with Digi24.

The minister said that the level of the Danube, which is used to cool the plant’s systems, has risen significantly over the past two weeks. Under these conditions, restarting a reactor in approximately two weeks is considered a realistic timeframe based on the data currently available.

Chisăliță stressed, however, that the timeframe may change depending on developments in the river’s flow rate and updated forecasts. The reactor could be restarted earlier or, conversely, after the initially estimated period.

The Cernavodă plant has two operational reactors, out of the five originally planned. Unit 1 was shut down in a controlled manner on July 28, and Unit 2 on August 13, due to the Danube’s very low flow rate, which affected the supply of water needed to cool the facilities. The minister said he would like production to resume immediately, but technical procedures do not allow this.