July 21 (SeeNews) - Nuclearelectrica [BSE:SNN], the operator of Romania's sole nuclear power plant Cernavoda, said on Friday that one of the plant's two units has automatically disconnected from the grid due to an unidentified problem in the classical part of the plant.
"SN Nuclearelectrica SA announces that Cernavoda NPP Unit 2 was disconnected automatically from the National Power System during the evening of July 20th 2017, 17:40 hours, due to a transient occurring in the classical part of the power plant," Nuclearelectrica said in a press release.
A transient is the generic name of an event that causes a power plant to proceed from a normal state of operation to abnormal functioning.
Cernavoda experts are conducting a technical analysis to determine the nature of the transient, Nuclearelectrica said.
The systems of the power plant are operating in compliance with the design and the ongoing technical analysis has no impact on the nuclear safety of the reactor, the operating personnel, the population and the environment, Nuclearelectrica added.
Due to the fact that the nuclear reactor of Unit 2 is at power, the reconnection of the unit to the national power grid will be performed in several hours.
Nuclearelectrica's first-quarter net profit rose 26% on the year to 84 million lei ($20.1 million/18.5 million euro) due to lower expenses.
In 2017, the company plans to invest 231.5 million lei, of which more than 196 million lei will be used for upgrade works at Cernavoda NPP
The Cernavoda plant, located in southeastern Romania, has two reactors of 700 megawatts each, which cover roughly a fifth of the country's power needs.
In February, Romania's energy ministry said that it intends to speed up negotiations with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) on the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda NPP. The negotiations with CGN were already extended three times in 2016.
In December 2015, Nuclearelectrica said it expects to set up a joint venture with CGN in 2016 and begin the construction of a pair of new units at the power plant, a project estimated to cost 6 billion euro ($6.5 billion) at the time, in two to three years. Under the memorandum of understanding on the project, the Chinese investor will hold a stake of at least 51% in the joint venture company that will do the job, while Nuclearelectrica will own at least 30%.
Nuclearelectrica shares were traded 0.72% higher at 6.99 lei by 1115 CET on the Bucharest bourse. The energy ministry holds a 82.4% stake in the company.
(1 euro =4.5654 Romanian lei)