An office building for SN Nuclearelectrica S.A. (SNN) — the operator of Romania’s only nuclear power plant — on a site located across the road from the Cernavodă NPP. With a total floor area of about 11,825 sqm on a 2B+G+6F+TF regime, the building will accommodate the plant’s administrative and technical staff and will house, on the top floor, the control-room simulator for the plant’s Unit 2.

Challenges

Three themes defined the project. Operational: Nuclearelectrica needs modern office space, as the strategic projects under way — the Unit 1 Refurbishment, the Tritium Removal Facility and preparation for Units 3 and 4 — have significantly increased headcount. Technical: the building includes, on the 6th floor, the Unit 2 control-room simulator — a critical training instrument for a nuclear plant’s operating staff, with specific spatial and services requirements. Geotechnical: the site has difficult founding ground, with a fill layer over a dusty-clayey complex highly sensitive to wetting over large depths, requiring a special foundation.

Solutions

The Unit 2 control-room simulator on the top floor. The 6th floor brings together ordinary office space with the simulator itself, organised as a micro training unit — control room, simulator technical zone and storage. The simulator room’s special span requirements called for a dedicated metal roof above it, adapted to the large clear span needed.

Raft foundation on piles. The geotechnical study confirmed the need for a deep foundation at -7 to -8 m, via a raft on piles, to transfer the loads through the wetting-sensitive layers down to the stable clayey-dusty complex at depth.

nZEB standard and rooftop photovoltaics. The building is designed to the nZEB standard, with a photovoltaic system on the roof for the common-area consumers. The investment’s target quality standard is aligned with LEED or BREEAM certification.

A triangle built on a triangular plot. The plot’s shape — a right triangle with the hypotenuse parallel to Medgidiei Street — generated a triangular massing that maximises the buildable area within the required 30% of green space.

Result

For Nuclearelectrica, a complete feasibility study, with cost-benefit analysis and two compared structural scenarios, finalised in November 2025; the client is continuing the investment toward the subsequent design and construction phases. For PPAE, a project combining several skills rarely required at once: an office building on a sensitive industrial-energy site, the integration of a training simulator for a nuclear plant, a deep foundation on difficult ground and the nZEB standard with a LEED/BREEAM target.

Do you have an investment for a public institution or a strategic company, on a sensitive site or ground with complex geotechnical problems? The PPAE team can support your project from concept to completion. Contact us