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A Candu fiasco in Romania

Broadcast Date: Jan. 16, 1990

Nuclear power may be the hardest sell of all Canada's exports, and recent buyers leave a lot to be desired. Canada partnered with Romania to build five Candu reactors, but Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who signed the deal, has just been deposed and executed, and the fifth estate finds the Candus have become another of his terrible legacies — poorly built, wrapped up in red tape, and still incomplete after ten years of construction.

A Candu fiasco in Romania

• In the 1970s Nicolae Ceausescu attempted to modernize Romania by borrowing huge amounts of money from Western banks. To pay for his giant projects, much of Romania's food and fuel was exported and the Romanian people suffered greatly.
• In December 1989 there were demonstrations against the government, joined by the army. Ceausescu fled but was arrested and executed on Christmas day.

• At one point Ceaucescu told the Romanian people that part of the nuclear plant was operational, when in fact the construction was still underway.
• As the project progressed the Romanians insisted on building many of the parts themselves, even if they had to delay the project for months while they learned how to do so.
• For some reactor parts built in Canada, the Romanians paid in "counter-trade" — surplus Romanian goods including planes, cars, clothes, steel, wine and jam.

A Candu fiasco in Romania

Medium: Television

Program: The Fifth Estate

Broadcast Date: Jan. 16, 1990

Guest(s): Don Anderson, John Karger, Ed Lumley

Reporter: Sheila MacVicar

Duration: 6:40

Last updated:
Oct. 4, 2007