Romania Expanding Nuclear Fleet

Romania has pulled together a pretty impressive group of energy suppiers - including ArcelorMittal, CEZ, GDF Suez, Enel, Iberdrola and RWE Power - in order to knock together two new nuclear units to join the units at the Canadian built Cernavoda.

Romanian Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian said the project would take nearly seven years to complete.

"This is a very great step to increase Romania's energy security," Mr Vosganian was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

We can only agree. The story doesn't mention whether Canada is building the new units, though the second unit, which is Canadian, only opened last year. There's a history there.

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While we'd like to say a few switches are getting thrown on at a the proposed plants we've mentioned here, we know we've got a bit of a wait ahead. So file this - and similar -  news in the back of your mind and we'll return to Romania in a few years to cut a ribbon and pop a cork. In fact, those same years will likely see a lot of ribbon cutting and cork popping.

The picture here is titled Cernavoda simulator, so we'll assume this is for teaching and testing rather than the live control room at Cernavoda.