Romania's second nuclear power station will be built in Transylvania, but its precise location hinges on the technology chosen for it, Economy Minister Adriean Videanu said on Saturday.
Complementing the Cernavoda facility in southeast Romania, the new power plant in the heart of the country has been forecast to start operations in 2020 — although delays could put the opening back by 10 years.
"It has been definitively decided: the nuclear power plant will be built in Transylvania, but we have not decided yet its exact location," said Videanu in the central town of Sibiu, the Romanian news agency Mediafax reported.
"We will decide depending on the technology chosen for the project," he said, citing differences between Canadian technology, which uses natural uranium, and others which depend on enriched uranium.
France has proposed to cooperate on the project, while President Traian Basescu has promised that Bucharest will go for a "European technology," according to the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A second nuclear power station would boost energy independence in Romania, one of the European Union's least developed member states, but environmental groups have denounced the idea as "an unacceptable risk".
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