Czech utility ČEZ to invest CZK 3.8 billion in Temelín modernisation this year, more than last year

ČEZ will invest CZK 3.8 billion in the modernisation of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant this year. This is CZK 700 million more than last year. The plant will complete its transition to a longer fuel cycle, continue modernising its control system and expand the use of artificial intelligence and modern inspection methods. Temelín will undergo two outages this year, and the utility will hire 100 new people. Representatives of ČEZ and the plant told journalists today.

This year, Temelín will continue its transition to a new control system supplied by Westinghouse. Since last year, the first unit has already been using part of the new control system. In the first months of this year, technicians will make the same modification at the second unit. The modernisation, which began three years ago, will be completed in 2029. "The transition is gradual and takes place during outages. Since last year, operators have been working in the new system environment, which also controls around one-third of the equipment at the first unit. The transition at the second unit will proceed in much the same way," said Petr Měšťan, director of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant.

This year, the utility will also complete the transition to a longer fuel cycle, which began in 2023. Operation between outages will be extended by half a year. This will allow the utility to load a greater share of fresh fuel assemblies into the reactor. "By extending the fuel cycle, we will reduce wear on equipment thanks to fewer shutdowns and therefore less cooling and reheating of the units. We will also achieve higher generation of nearly two terawatt-hours per year across both nuclear power plants. We completed the transition to a longer fuel campaign at Dukovany the year before last," said Bohdan Zronek, a ČEZ board member and director of the nuclear energy division.

Temelín is planning two outages this year. First, the utility will shut down the second unit for two months in mid-February. It will then also suspend operation of the first unit for approximately the same period in mid-October. During the outages, technicians will replace the fuel. Specialists will load 66 new fuel assemblies into the reactor of each unit and place seven containers holding 133 used assemblies into storage.

ČEZ also plans to hire nearly 100 new people at Temelín this year. The main opportunities are for people with technical experience or education. The utility is particularly interested in mechanical engineers, electricians and materials engineers, although graduates from non-technical fields will also find employment. "Alongside generational renewal, it is the extensive modernisations that create opportunities for new employees. In addition to operators and support technical staff, we are interested, for example, in technicians who will handle planned investment projects and equipment maintenance," Měšťan added.

The plant will also expand the use of artificial intelligence, which has been helping with documentation work for two years. This includes thousands of project, safety and operational documents. "Data are corporate gold. There is an enormous amount of it in a nuclear power plant environment; across both plants, the archives fill 12 kilometres of shelving. AI can make our work with this data much more efficient. We already use it for working with document texts, and we gradually want to extend it to images, drawings and diagrams," the director said.

Czechia has six nuclear units at two power plants, which together generated 32.066 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity last year. ČEZ invests around CZK seven billion annually in the two plants combined. The Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant has four units. South Korean company KHNP won the contract to build two additional units at Dukovany. Representatives of ČEZ and the Dukovany plant said on Tuesday that the company will invest CZK 4.4 billion in equipment renewal at the plant this year, CZK 200 million more than last year.