(Ottawa) Canada is helping finance two new CANDU nuclear reactors in Romania, which Romania’s energy minister says will help reduce Russia’s ability to use its energy exports as a weapon.
The Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, signed a 3 billion export financing agreement on Tuesday in Ottawa with his Romanian counterpart, Sebastian Burduja.
Canadian funding is limited to what Romania’s state-owned Nuclearelectrica, which operates the Cernavodă nuclear power plant, will spend to purchase equipment and expertise from Canadian companies.
Minister Burduja says the agreement is partly about climate change, as it will allow Romania to burn less coal to produce electricity.
But above all, according to him, it is about distancing ourselves from Russian energy sources. Romania is also in talks with other countries in the region so that they too reduce their dependence on Russia, the minister indicated.
Two Canadian-made Candu reactors already provide a quarter of Romania’s electricity; the two additional reactors will increase this figure to almost a third of the national supply.