Banks| Dodgy Deals| Map| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Join our Active Allies list
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2020-12-22 00:00:00
Blog: In 2020, the Equator Principles struggle to remain relevant
2020-12-14 00:00:00
The battle to stop Line 3 is heating up on the ground and across the US
2020-12-14 00:00:00
Corporate accountability and the just transition: Frameworks for holding corporations accountable for climate change
2020-12-12 00:00:00
Five years since the Paris Agreement, are banks' 2050 pledges enough to reign in fossil fuel finance?
2020-09-24 12:53:20
Oscislowo open-pit coal mine cancelled
2020-09-08 13:07:41
Strengthened OECD guidance on responsible banking
2020-02-25 10:35:27
JPMorgan Chase Coal and Arctic Policy a step forward but fails to match its climate responsibility as the world’s #1 Fossil Bank
2020-02-18 17:27:23
Civil society groups welcome Royal Bank of Scotland preparing to exit fossil fuels
Connect
2020-11-30 00:00:00
Soft Commitments, Hard Lessons: an analysis of the Soft Commodities Compact
2020-11-24 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part II
2020-11-18 00:00:00
Crude Risk: Risks to banks and investors from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
2020-09-16 00:00:00
Principles for Paris-Aligned Financial Institutions: Climate Impact, Fossil Fuels and Deforestation
2020-08-17 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part I
2020-03-18 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Change - Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2020
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Home › News
Cernavoda nuclear reactor too dangerous to build, says new report
Greenpeace calls on Romanian government to shelve the project
Start
Dodgy Deals

By: Greenpeace International
2009-03-10
Bucharest

Contact:

Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Greenpeace Canada energy campaigner, 416 884 7053, shawn.patrick.stensil@greenpeace.org

Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace EU policy campaigner, +32 477 790 416, jan.haverkamp@greenpeace.org (English)

Crisanta Lungu, Greenpeace energy campaigner, Romania, +40 720 544 000, crisanta.lungu@greenpeace.ro

 


Share this page:

Greenpeace is calling on Romania to abandon its plans to build two new Candu-6 reactors at Cernovoda in response to a recently released Greenpeace commissioned report that finds the Canadian reactor design is unsafe and too dangerous to build according to modern safety standards.

“The Cernavoda reactors do not meet modern standards. The Romanian Government and the project companies must abandon their plans to proceed with the construction of Cernavoda 3 and 4," said Crisanta Lungu, an energy campaigner with Greenpeace in Romania.

The report, "The Risks of Operating Candu 6 Nuclear Power Plants" was presented to the press in Romania today during a press conference with videolinks to Canada and the USA. It warns that countries like Romania wanting to construct CANDU-6 reactors would have to forgo thorough safety reviews. These include standards intended to prevent catastrophic radiation releases from terrorist attacks or accidents.

The study, carried out by Dr. Gordon R. Thompson of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Massachusetts, USA, highlights a litany of problems with the CANDU-6 design, including:

  • The same design flaw that contributed to the Chernobyl explosion and to the world’s first nuclear accident in 1952 at AECL´s Chalk River laboratories. This design flaw does not meet modern safety standards.
  • The CANDU-6 would not resist a terrorist attack and would not meet post-9/11 safety standards.
  • The occurrence of external events like earthquakes, quite common in this part of Romania, are not taken sufficiently into account in risk calculations for CANDU-6 reactors.
  • Its emergency shut-down systems are untested and unproven. Confidence in the ability of these systems to operate in accident situations is low.
  • Its use of natural uranium and online fueling makes it attractive to countries hoping to acquire the capacity to divert plutonium from used fuel to build atomic weapons. India used a Canadian reactor to build an atomic bomb; AECL stated late last year it would like to sell additional reactors to India and is using possible construction of CANDU-6 reactors in Cernavoda as marketing argument for its international sales.

Based on Dr. Thompson’s findings, Greenpeace is recommending full risk assessments before the licensing and construction of the reactors is permitted and a formal request for such assessments to the Romanian government, Romanian Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the European Commission, the companies involved in the construction of Cernavoda 3 and 4.

"Because the CANDU-6 shares a fatal design flaw with the Chernobyl reactors, safety regulators in the Germany and the USA would never allow it to be built. If Romania continues the construction of Cernavoda 3 and 4, it clearly considers its population to be second class citizens that can be served with a second class nuclear power station," said Jan Haverkamp, nuclear energy expert for Greenpeace Europe.

Greenpeace notes that Canadian province of Ontario, the birthplace of the CANDU-6 design, abandoned its plan to build a new CANDU-6 in 2006 because of the design changes required for the CANDU-6 to meet modern standards. "In a post September 11th, post Chernobyl world, Canada should not export a reactor deemed too dangerous to build here at home," Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Greenpeace energy campaigner in Canada.

The report was written by Gordon Thompson, a nuclear expert and professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was educated in Australia and the UK, in engineering and science, obtaining his doctorate from Oxford University in 1973.

Last month, Greenpeace Europe filed a complaint on with the European Commission over alleged illegal state aid for the construction of additional CANDU-6 reactors at Cernavoda.

 

NOTES TO THE EDITOR:

The project companies involved in the construction plans of Cernavoda 3 and 4 are the 100% state owned Romanian utility SN Nuclearelectrica A.S., GdF Suez / Electrabel from France, RWE from Germany, CEZ from the Czech Republic, ENEL from Italy, Iberdrola from Spain and Arcelor-Mital from India.

 

Related Dodgy Deals

Projects

There are no projects active for this item now.
on record

Cernavoda nuclear power plant (units 3 & 4) Romania

Nuclear Electric Power Generation

Companies

active

RWE Germany

Coal Electric Power Generation | Coal Mining | Nuclear Electric Power Generation | Solar Electric Power Generation | Wind Electric Power Generation
There are no companies active for this item now.
on record

CEZ Group Czech Republic

Coal Electric Power Generation | Coal Mining | Nuclear Electric Power Generation
on record

ENGIE France

Coal Electric Power Generation | Hydroelectric Power Generation
Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted