Dukovany nuclear plant in Czechia to shut down first unit as planned; no power until October

Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant will shut down its first generating unit today as planned for routine maintenance, equipment inspections and the replacement of some of its fuel with fresh fuel. The outage will last until October. Operators began reducing the reactor’s output at noon. The unit will stop supplying electricity to the grid in the evening, plant spokesperson Jiří Bezděk said. The other three Dukovany units are in operation.

Both units at the Temelín power plant are also operating; the plant connected its second generating unit to the transmission grid overnight.

During the outage at the Dukovany unit, energy workers will carry out more than 18.000 work tasks. „We have a range of investments ahead of us, as well as standard, routine maintenance work. Key tasks include inspections of two main circulation pumps and steam generators, the emergency core cooling system and backup diesel generators,“ plant director Roman Havlín said. Workers are also completing maintenance on the outer shell of cooling tower number eight.

„Maintenance and upgrades to equipment are crucial to the planned safe and reliable operation of nuclear units,“ said Bohdan Zronek, a member of the board of directors of ČEZ and director of its nuclear energy division.

He said the outage at the Dukovany unit would last until October, followed by a planned outage of Temelín’s second unit.

This is the third unit outage at Dukovany this year, with the final outage expected to begin at the end of the year. As the units transition from 12-month to 16-month fuel cycles, the number of outages in a single year is expected to fall from four to three.

Czechia has six nuclear units at two power plants. Dukovany generated 14,3 TWh of electricity last year, while Temelín exceeded 16 TWh.

ČEZ is preparing to build two new units at Dukovany, with the first expected to be completed in 2036. The supplier will be South Korean company KHNP, which the Czech government selected over France’s EDF in the tender. The contract to build the reactors at Dukovany is expected to be signed by the end of March next year.