ČEZ to invest CZK 4.2 billion at Czechia’s Dukovany plant this year, nearly CZK 1 billion more year on year

At the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, ČEZ will invest CZK 4.2 billion this year, compared with CZK 3.32 billion last year. At Unit 4, which is currently shut down as planned, power output will be increased from 500 to 512 megawatts (MW). The same was done last year at the other three units. However, electricity generation at Dukovany is expected to be at a comparable level to last year because of the extensive investment programme, plant director Roman Havlín told reporters today.

The units’ increased output should provide an additional 300,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, but because of equipment modernisation, generation at the Dukovany plant will remain at a similar level in the coming years. „We are carrying out extensive investment projects, with around 160 planned this year,“ the director said. This affects the length of unit outages, which are now scheduled to last more than 70 days.

ČEZ aims to operate the Dukovany units for at least 60 years. This year’s investment will include replacing sections of piping and cables that are reaching the end of their service life, as well as continuing the refurbishment of the unit section switchboards. The company is also preparing a new training centre for work at heights, in confined spaces and underground.

Last year, the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant supplied 14.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity to the transmission grid, its sixth-highest annual output. The Temelín power plant generated 15 TWh of electricity.

US company Westinghouse will supply the first new fuel for both Czech nuclear power plants, Dukovany and Temelín, this year. The fuel is expected to be loaded into one of Dukovany’s reactors for the first time next year. Westinghouse is returning to Temelín after 15 years and will supply fuel to Dukovany for the first time. Fuel has so far been supplied by Russia’s TVEL; ČEZ decided to change suppliers for security reasons.

„The Czech Republic’s energy security is one of our priorities. That is also why talks are under way with Framatome as another potential supplier for Dukovany, and we want to take part ourselves in developing the new fuel,“ said Bohdan Zronek, a member of ČEZ’s Board of Directors and director of its nuclear energy division.

Framatome is a French company.

As of 1 January this year, ČEZ had 1,680 employees at Dukovany, including 970 permanent staff. Last year, 247 people joined the plant, the highest number in the past five years. As a result of generational turnover and an increase in staff numbers, the average age of the plant’s employees has fallen to 43.

This year marks 40 years since the first Dukovany unit began operating; it entered trial operation on 3 May 1985. All four Dukovany units have been in operation since July 1987.

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 the final contract. A long-running dispute between KHNP and US company Westinghouse, which also bid to build nuclear units in Czechia, has been settled. The two sides announced this last week. The first of the new reactors is expected to be completed in 2036.

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