French cable manufacturer Nexans has been awarded a contract worth $12 million by Romanian power utility Nuclearelectrica to supply special cable equipment to the Cernavoda nuclear station. The contract covers the supply of 1500km of cables, which is almost the total cable requirement for the plant's second reactor. Delivery is scheduled for 2003.
The cables are for medium and low voltage supply to all the reactor's power equipment as well as the control cables, plus the measurement and instrumentation cables used to collect and transmit all data used in the reactor's operation.
All the cables will be manufactured in the company's factory in Lyons, France. Being both halogen-free and fire-retardant with low-smoke emission, the cables must also comply with special radiation-resistance specifications for the reactor's 30-year lifespan. They must also endure the stresses established under the reference accident: reactor runaway with thermodynamic shock and very high level radiation.
