Canadian Prime Minister To Visit Romania

  • By Carol Macivor


Ottawa, April 16 (RFE/RL) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien is scheduled to arrive in the Romanian capital Bucharest today for a two-day visit.

He is expected to take part in a ceremony tomorrow with Romanian President Ion Iliescu to officially open the Cernavoda nuclear power station. The plant is expected to be connected to Romania's national electricity grid by late summer.

The troubled power plant uses the Canadian-designed CANDU nuclear reactor. The project, which dates back to the 1970s, had involved the planned construction of more than a dozen CANDU reactors on the site. But plans were scaled back after the government of Nicolai Ceaucescu was overthrown in 1989.

Chretien is scheduled to travel to Moscow later in the week for the G-7 summit on nuclear safety.