In the last two weeks, we have recorded three attacks in the press on the Romanian energy sector. The first is on Hidroelectrica, which I wrote about at the end of January 2024. The second is on Nuclearelectrica, the other day.

The one on Hidroelectrica is written in a way you wouldn’t expect: Mircea Kozea, who is a university professor, and written in a nationalist-sovereignist tone. His Highness fears that in this company, registered on the BVB by Fondul Proprietatea, which sold its almost 20% of shares through a public offering, the Romanian state will lose control of the company.

The second is more insidious, written by a journalist who, if we analyze her writings, we find that she lives in a constant conspiracy theory. Statti is being taken over (through a partnership) by one of the most toxic Romanian-language publications. In addition, he does not have minimal knowledge of the economy and the stock market. (Graduated in philosophy – journalism). But we are used to people who express opinions without having the minimum necessary knowledge in a certain field.

The second article warns us that Nuclearelectrica may, in turn, fall into the wrong hands. Americans and Canadians. The third is the most direct: the Americans will bankrupt Nuclearelectrica, explains the same person who wrote the previous one. Attacks on mass media may be part of the hybrid war that the Russian Federation is waging in Romania!

We know that Minister Sebastian Burduja was in the USA, where he had contacts with representatives of the American government or energy companies. On the agenda of his board was the completion of the construction of the two reactors of the Chernavoda power plant, SMR, electricity storage and geothermal energy.

The situation with Nuclearelectrica shares is clear: the state owns 82.4981% and there is no threat of losing control.

I don’t know what the source of the investment money will be, but there are several possibilities.

If the state budget does not allow an investment of this scale, the first option is for Nuclearelectrica to go to the bank to borrow several billion dollars to complete the investment in the two reactors. The second is the issue of bonds. Both are quite expensive.

The third is to sell part of the shares from the existing package in the state’s portfolio. It doesn’t look like it!

Fourth, the state, together with other shareholders, decides to increase the social capital by issuing new shares. This is probably the best option. … Or a combination of four options … Today, the capitalization is almost 15 billion lei, and the share capital (definitely undervalued) is just over 3 billion lei. It would not be a problem for the state (as the majority shareholder) to decide to issue new shares that would be sold on the stock exchange at a real value, i.e. much higher, in order to capitalize Nuclearelectrica and be able to invest in two strategic projects.

Where is the geostrategic significance here?

The first step was taken when Nicolae Ceausescu decided that the construction technology of the first nuclear power plant would be different from the Soviet one. At that time, Romania was outside the Soviet Union and did not want to be dependent on Russian technology and nuclear fuel.

The second step was taken by the then leaders of the USA and Canada, who decided to supply CANDU technology to communist Romania. This was one of the strategic losses of the Soviets. The Romanian leadership at that time negotiated its independence in nuclear energy, building a chain of extraction-production-processing of raw materials and equipment for electricity production. Thus, in 1990, Romania could produce (almost) all the elements needed for nuclear energy. Later, due to the crisis and ignorance of the decision makers, many production units in the chain were closed. (Let’s not go into the sulphurous details.) Thus, today Romania can no longer complete the other started reactors. Five 720 MW units were planned. Two completed. Two more have been worked on diligently until today.

Technologies were developing. Security regulations have evolved. Romania lagged behind in all areas, from research to mining, processing and machinery manufacturing. We know that today we are no longer able to produce much to complete the two reactors 3 and 4.

So, if new transfers of technology, machinery and equipment materialize from any country that is not under the control of the Russian Federation, we can say that Romania has taken another geostrategic step towards the Western democracies. A strategic partnership with the United States helps Romania. We know that the Americans provide technology only where there is a critical security and technological area, therefore only to trusted allies. Capital and investments only go where there is no risk. We seem to have good ratings for both reliability and security.

If we look across the landscape, we see that most NATO member states are changing their industrial trajectories because of the war in Ukraine, strengthening their arms and ammunition industries after realizing that in the event of a potential attack by the Russian Federation, they cannot continue many days with what is currently available.

Romania is far from moving to a heavy industry capable of producing arms and ammunition, simply for the simple fact that it does not have the energy necessary for such development.

Another important step was taken the other day by Minister Burduja, who signed a letter of intent with Loockheed Martin. His Majesty announced on Facebook: “This is the first step for the development of battery technology in Romania. And not just any battery, but Lockheed Martin’s state-of-the-art GridStar Flow (redox battery), an innovative large-scale energy storage solution for utility, commercial, industrial and military applications. It is a cost-effective and efficient long-term technology with a lifetime of 20 years, which, very importantly, does not depend on critical raw materials and is environmentally friendly.”

Why is this step important? – Read the rest of the article and comment on Contributors.ro