Braşov on the list of possible locations for a nuclear plant

Four locations out of the 102 that the authorities are currently considering for the placement of a nuclear plant are located in the county of Braşov. The locations in question are the towns Comăna, Veneţia, Sâmbăta and Bogata. In Southern Transylvania, two other possible locations are in the county of Sibiu - Tălmaciu and Porumbacu, with another 73 locations in Transylvania.

The next nuclear power plant in Romania is still in the planning stage, with several locations being considered for its placement. The one thing that is certain however is that it will have to be located near water, which is why there are discussions over its placement near the Danube, Olt, Mureş, Someş or Bistriţa. Government sources claim that any of these rivers can support reactors with a total power output of 2.000 - 3.000 MW.

Five types of nuclear-electric plants were included in the study: EPR 1600 (a project called European Power Reactor, of 1600 MW, developed jointly by France and Germany), AP 1000 (a new type of pressurized water which can generate some 1.100 MW), ACR 1000 (a reactor with 1000 MW installed power), ABWR 1300 (advanced 1300 MW hot water reactor) and APR 1400 (reactor used by North Korea"s reactor, with a power of 1.400 MW).

According to the cited government sources, the idea of analyzing new locations along the Danube or at the Black Sea was abandoned, due to the already existing power concentrated in the Dobrogea area. The location of the new power plant will be selected according to the seismicity of the land, the flow of water available for the cooling source and the existing electricity grids.

Similar power plants will be commissioned in Slovakia (two reactors with a projected individual power of 440 MW, in 2012), France (one 1.630 MW reactor, in 2012), Finland (one 1.600 MW reactor, In 2011) and in the Russian Federation (ten reactors with power output ranging between 700 and 1.200 MW, between 2009-2014). Romania"s next power plant could be built after 2020, and could have two to four reactors.

Romania"s only nuclear plant, located in Cernavodă has two nuclear units of 700 MW each. Other two reactors with similar powers will be built by 2015, following a 4 billion Euro investment.

At this time, across the globe there are some 440 active nuclear plants, which produce around 16% of the world"s electricity. The United States have 103 operational nuclear power plants, with a total power of 98.254 MW, which represents the world"s largest nuclear installed power, followed by France with 59 nuclear units of 63.473 MW.