Austrian insurance group VIG and German group Allianz are in the race to insure the high-power laser facility at Magurele, south of Bucharest, the biggest research facility developed in Romania in the last decades.

Insurers Asirom VIG and Omniasig VIG as well as Allianz-Tiriac have submitted bids to insure all the assets of the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development for Physics and Nuclear Engineering in Magurele, reports local Profit.ro. The contract is estimated at RON 8.3 million (EUR 1.8 million) for four years.

According to the tender documentation, the insurance would cover material damages to the institute's buildings and equipment as well as to the future high-power laser system, which will become operational in 2019.

Moreover, the winning bidder will provide civil liability to third parties and to the institute and laser system. For both the institute and the laser system, the sum insured for civil third party liability is EUR 1 million.

In the case of the material damage policy, the insured amount of the institute's buildings and equipment was set at RON 112.25 million (EUR 24.9 million). For the laser system, the insured amount is RON 353.9 million (EUR 78.6 million) (the value of work carried out until the auction, excluding VAT), plus EUR 180 million for future equipment and buildings.

The Magurele laser project is one of the three pillars of the pan-European project ELI, which will become the world’s most advanced global structure destined to studies related to photon radiation with extreme characteristics. The other two centers, namely ELI-Beamlines and ELI-ALPS, will be built in the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Romania’s high-power laser is assembled

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com