Romania to own majority stake in nuclear reactors

BUCHAREST, June 24 (Reuters) - Romania will retain a majority stake in a partnership to build and operate two more reactors at the country's sole nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, the government decided on Tuesday.

Last year, Bucharest selected six bidders to partner Nuclearelectrica.

They are Belgium's Electrabel (LYOE.PA), Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI), Spain's Iberdrola (IBE.MC), Czech CEZ (CEZPsp.PR), a Romanian unit of ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) and Germany's RWE (RWEG.DE).

Nuclearelectrica initially envisioned a 20 percent stake but negotiations with the selected power firms were frozen after the government said it will seek a bigger share.

"We have reconsidered the state's participation at Cernavoda ... to a minimum of 51 percent social capital of the company that will work on the third and fourth reactors," Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu told a news briefing.

He estimated the investment in the two reactors at around 4 billion euros.

Work at the Cernavoda plant began 30 years ago. The plant's first unit went on stream in 1996 and the second in 2007. The two new units should be completed by 2015.

(Reporting by Iulia Rosca, writing by Luiza Ilie; Editing by David Cowell)