Doicești SMR: RON 1.16B Exposure & Governance Risks — NRG-IA

The Doicești SMR project can no longer be treated as a mere poster child for the energy transition. It has moved past the phase of strategic declarations and entered the territory where figures, contracts, risks, and governance must be laid out on the table. The stakes are high: Romania could host one of the first European power plants based on small modular reactors, with a total capacity of approximately 462 MW, on the site of the former Doicești coal-fired plant. But these very stakes make an uncomfortable question mandatory: is the project structured well enough to justify the public financial exposure already accumulated? Data from Nuclearelectrica's Q1 2026 report shows that the loan granted to RoPower Nuclear had reached, as of March 31, 2026, a principal of RON 1,040,558,715 (equivalent to approximately EUR 204 million), plus accumulated interest of RON 122,496,489. The total reported exposure thus exceeds RON 1.16 billion. This is not a minor development expense, but a…