Dukovany nuclear plant in Czechia to speed up cooling tower inspections with drones and AI

ČEZ will use drones and artificial intelligence to inspect the cooling towers at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, making inspections faster and more precise. The plant has eight cooling towers, each 125 metres high. Until now, workers have inspected them from suspended platforms. The plant first tested the new system on one of the towers in recent months and is now verifying the results. It is working with the Czech Technical University in Prague on the project. Plant spokesperson Jiří Bezděk told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) today.

„The benefits are clear in terms of both time and cost savings. There is no need to suspend platforms from the towers, with people having to work on them. And, of course, artificial intelligence can analyse the data very quickly,“ said plant director Roman Havlín.

The massive towers have served the plant since it began operating in 1985. Their inner and outer surfaces have a combined area of 424.000 square metres. Drones have now mapped one of the towers completely, both inside and out, using 3D laser spectral scanning. A thermal imaging inspection also detected minor damage to the inner layers, the spokesperson said. Artificial intelligence was used to create a so-called digital twin of the tower, marking and identifying the findings. Staff at the Klokner Institute laboratories of the Czech Technical University in Prague then carried out physical and chemical tests on samples taken from the tower.

„Before deploying the newly introduced inspection methods, we must confirm their reliability. But we want to operate our nuclear power plants efficiently for at least 60 years, and we need the latest technologies to do so,“ said Bohdan Zronek, ČEZ board member and director of its nuclear energy division.

The Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant has four units, which were commissioned between 1985 and 1987. Unit 4 has been offline since Christmas Eve for regular maintenance, servicing and nuclear fuel replacement. The outage is scheduled to last until March. Last year, Dukovany supplied 14,7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity to the grid.

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. It aims to sign the contract by the end of March this year. The first of the new reactors is expected to be completed in 2036.