The National University of Science and Technology Politehnica of Bucharest (UNSTPB) "will be an SMR (small nuclear reactors) education and training hub for the region", in the context in which Romania "is the first country in Europe, second after the USA, to install the American NuScale SMR technology", says Mihnea Costoiu, the rector of the University, quoted in a press release.
According to the university, “Romania, through UNSTPB, will share its knowledge in the nuclear sector with all countries in the region”.
The statement was made in the context of a visit by John Kerry, Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, to the institution of higher education, the E2 Energy Exploration Center.
The E2 Center was inaugurated at the School of Energetics in May this year and is part of the U.S. Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program. The center hosts the control room simulator for the VOYGRTM NuScale small modular reactor power plant.
Romania is the first country in Europe to host a NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) power plant in Doicești, Dâmbovița county. On Thursday, US envoy John Kerry explained in an interview with Digi24, quoted by News.ro and G4Media.ro, that Romania was chosen for this new system “because Romanians have worked with nuclear energy before, because they wanted to do it and because we think it makes sense”.
In an interview given to G4Media.ro by Cosmin Ghiță, director of Nuclearelectrica, at the end of last year, he said, regarding the fact that the Doicești site is very close to Bucharest: “this type of advanced technology is designed from the nuclear safety point of view to be used near communities, the risks being practically non-existent”.