Romania’s future energy mix must include both small and large-scale nuclear energy producers, which is why it is very important for our country to develop a strategy to highlight the important role that nuclear energy (including SMR – Small Modular Reactors) can play in ensuring the need for safe electricity, an official from the Intelligent Energy Association (AEI), Dumitru Chisalita, told AGERPRES on Monday.

“More than twenty states, including Romania, called on Saturday, in a joint statement at the COP28, for the tripling of nuclear energy capacities worldwide by 2050 compared to 2020, in order to reduce dependence on coal and gas. And this is happening in the context in which, at the EU level, we find it difficult to accept the need to include nuclear energy into the taxonomy as transition fuel in 2022 (…) It is very important to be aware that, in the perspective of 2050, Romania’s need in terms of a secure supply of electricity, which can ensure flexibility between the variability of electricity production from renewable sources and the volatility of consumption (which will be largely based on electricity), can only be solved with small nuclear reactors, in the absence of electricity produced from coal and gas. In the same perspective, the heating of large urban agglomerations can be based on the thermal energy provided by small nuclear applications – SMR, possibly located in the vicinity of localities,” said Chisalita.

In the specialist’s view, Romania must develop a strategy to establish the important role that nuclear energy (including SMR) can play in the future in terms of ensuring the need for safe electricity, balancing energy systems based on renewable energy and especially the heating of homes in large urban agglomerations.

“People need electricity and heat continuously and at an acceptable price. The development of energy systems that can generate low prices, but that do not provide you with the energy you need when you need it, are not compatible with the requirements of today’s society (…) The dispute over how to deal with nuclear power in the EU, over how Europe intends to move towards cleaner energy, has been settled in favour of developing nuclear power generation capacity in the future. Fortunately, the engineering concepts managed to dethrone the opinions of politicians and prevent future critical situations, but also to come up with security solutions related to how the EU can secure its energy sources as it wants to move away from Russian gas, and also related to how the EU industry can have affordable energy prices to compete with the USA and China,” said Chisalita.