Cernavodă’s Unit 1 was reconnected to the national grid in the night of Saturday, 14 November 2026. Monitorul de Botoșani writes that Romania is covering all of its electricity use from domestic production, with no imports, and that Unit 1’s return helps. With the restart, both reactors at the country’s only nuclear plant are generating again after the summer shutdowns.

By morning the two units were supplying about 997 megawatts together: about 700 from Unit 2 and about 300 from Unit 1, according to Monitorul. Their combined maximum is about 1,400 megawatts, and output is due to rise gradually. The paper says estimates put the plant at maximum production by Sunday evening. Mediafax, citing Transelectrica, places the synchronisation at about 01:00 and the morning delivery at nearly 1,000 megawatts. Economica writes that the reconnection happened at 01:00, earlier than the last Transelectrica schedule, which had pointed to 09:00, and that Unit 1 is due to reach its nominal power on Sunday at 07:00.

Monitorul ties Unit 1’s return to the balance of the system, at a time when covering demand from domestic sources matters for dependence on foreign markets. At that point production covered national consumption, with no imports and no exports. More nuclear output can ease the pressure especially when power bought abroad is expensive. Digi24 describes the same balance: domestic production covers consumption, with no imports and no exports.

Both units were shut in the summer because the Danube’s flow was low, Monitorul writes: Unit 1 in July, Unit 2 in August. Mediafax gives the dates: Unit 1 on 28 July, because drought and the Danube’s level could no longer supply cooling water, and Unit 2 on 13 August. Economica notes that the two units provided about 20% of dispatchable energy.

This week’s stop is separate from the summer one. Mediafax writes that Unit 1 was shut without a plan at the start of the week, three days after it had been reconnected, because of a fault in the non-nuclear part. After the incident, Nuclearelectrica’s chief announced changes in the plant’s technical management, including replacement of the technical director from 1 December 2026. Economica says Unit 1 had been resynchronised on the afternoon of Friday, 3 November, and disconnected on Monday evening because of a fault in the conventional part, later identified at the turbine condenser, with no impact on nuclear safety. On Monday, Nuclearelectrica said that from 1 December 2026 the technical director of CNE Cernavodă will be replaced, and that the root cause will be the subject of a later report. The general director had said it was an equipment fault.

Unit 2 was already back on the system. Mediafax writes that it was connected on Wednesday and on Thursday reached its nominal 700 megawatts, the same figure Monitorul gives for Unit 2 on Saturday morning. The same account says the return of both units closes a stretch of more than three and a half months in which Romania had no nuclear power.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — the Cernavodă nuclear plant, 21 August 2009 (farrangallo, CC BY-SA 3.0). The photo is not from the 14 November 2026 restart.

Sources consulted: Cernavodă’s Reactor 1 has been restarted — Monitorul de Botoșani; The plant is operating with both units — Mediafax; Unit 1 has been restarted — Economica.net.