40 years ago, the first fission reaction began in a reactor at Czechia’s Dukovany plant

The first fission chain reaction in a power reactor on the territory of the Czech Republic began on 12 February 1985 in the first reactor at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor reached full power about a month later and was put into permanent operation in November 1985.

The history of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant in the Třebíč region dates back to the early 1970s, when what was then Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union signed an intergovernmental agreement to build two nuclear power plants with capacities of 1760 MW. The first was the plant at Jaslovské Bohunice in Slovakia (the first nuclear power plant in Czechoslovakia), and the second was Dukovany in South Moravia. Construction of the Dukovany plant began in 1978, and the fourth and final unit was commissioned in 1987.

Czechia currently has six nuclear units at two power plants. Two units, each with a capacity of approximately 1000 megawatts (MW), are at Temelín in South Bohemia. Four smaller units with a capacity of 510 MW are at Dukovany. This year, ČEZ will invest 4.2 billion crowns in the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, up from 3.32 billion crowns last year. The plant supplied 14.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity to the transmission grid last year, its sixth-highest annual output. The Temelín plant generated 15 TWh of electricity.

Last year, the government decided to build two new reactors at Dukovany. They are to be built by South Korean company KHNP, with which ČEZ is now negotiating a final contract. The first of the new reactors is expected to be completed in 2036.