Nuclearelectrica rejects SMR Doicești reevaluation — NRG-IA

The paradoxical vote in Nuclearelectrica’s AGM — the Doicești SMR project officially moves forward The Romanian state has blocked its own Prime Minister's request to reevaluate the Doicești SMR project through a Nuclearelectrica shareholder vote. Although Prime Minister and interim Energy Minister Ilie Bolojan publicly called for a thorough rethinking of the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) plant, the state representative in the General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) voted against this initiative, according to reports from Economica.net and e-nergia.ro on July 15, 2026. This decision marks an unprecedented administrative friction in the national energy sector. Nuclearelectrica, a company majority-controlled by the Romanian state through the Ministry of Energy, officially informed shareholders and investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange that it has taken note of the adopted resolution, which rejected the reevaluation proposal. Consequently, the strategic partnership with US investors and the development of the Doicești project maintain their established schedule, despite warning signs from the head of the Government. The vote reflects a clear disconnect between high-level political statements and the formal mandate exercised in state-owned enterprise boards. The Doicești project, designed to replace a former coal-fired power plant with a 462 MW advanced nuclear facility, is the cornerstone of Romania's decarbonization strategy, heavily backed by US partners. The rejection of the reevaluation prevents a potential suspension of activities, ensuring the continuity of ongoing design and licensing phases. However, the event exposes a sharp lack of cohesion within the government apparatus, where strategic decisions appear to be contested between administrative palaces. The decision-making rift between the political leadership and Nuclearelectrica's corporate governance The direct cause of this paradoxical vote lies in the governance structure of state-owned enterprises and the commercial obligations already assumed by Nuclearelectrica within the RoPower consortium. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan publicly cited the need for a rigorous cost-benefit analysis, amid rising global costs for NuScale's technology and increasingly tight delivery schedules. However, introducing a formal reevaluation in the AGM could have been interpreted as a vote of no confidence by US partners and international financial institutions involved in the project. Energy market sources suggest that the state representative's mandate in the AGM was not aligned with the interim Prime Minister's public statements in order to protect the company's legal and commercial stability. A potential suspension or major reevaluation of the project risked triggering significant commercial penalties and damaging Romania's credibility before external lenders, such as US Exim Bank and the DFC, which have pledged billions in support for Doicești. Therefore, the Ministry of Energy's technical staff chose to maintain the project's course, ignoring short-term political pressure. Stability for the US partnership, but risk of internal administrative gridlock The immediate consequence of this vote is the short-term preservation of the SMR project's implementation schedule, providing a signal of predictability for investors on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Nuclearelectrica's shares thus avoid a severe correction that uncertainty over Doicești could have triggered. On the geopolitical front, the decision temporarily calms US concerns regarding Romania's firm commitment to becoming the first SMR hub in the Eastern European region. On the other hand, this coordination breakdown risks hampering future decision-making in the energy sector. A Prime Minister whose authority is bypassed by his own ministry's representatives in state-owned companies could face major difficulties in enforcing other structural reforms. Furthermore, high-level political disagreements may discourage local private co-financers, who become hesitant to commit capital to a project that lacks a full and stable political consensus in Bucharest. The FEED 2 timeline and the final test of the investment decision at Doicești In the coming period, the Doicești project enters the critical phase of finalizing the second Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED 2) study, which will precisely determine the economic and technical indicators of the future plant. The deadline for completing this analysis represents the next major stress test for the RoPower consortium. Any budget overruns identified in this phase will reactivate political pressure for reevaluation, giving opponents of the project solid arguments for another attempt to halt it. The main challenge remains securing the complex financing structure of approximately $4 billion required for the actual construction. Without a unified position explicitly backed by the Romanian Government, obtaining state guarantees and sovereign loans could be delayed. The Final…