Dukovany nuclear power plant in Czechia to start using Westinghouse fuel at year-end

The Dukovany nuclear power plant will start using fuel from US company Westinghouse this autumn. The supplier will deliver it at the end of the year. A few months later, Westinghouse will also start supplying fuel to the Temelín power plant. ČEZ representatives told journalists today. Dukovany and Temelín currently use fuel supplied by TVEL, part of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom group. The plants’ operator, the partly state-owned ČEZ, decided to change the fuel supplier for Dukovany last March for security reasons related to the war in Ukraine.

In 2019, Temelín loaded six Westinghouse test fuel assemblies into the reactor of Unit 1. They were used, among other things, to verify their characteristics, and experts are now working with the results. „At the end of this year, Westinghouse will deliver fuel assemblies to Dukovany. We are currently completing an expansion of the storage facilities here,“ said Bohdan Zronek, a member of the board of directors and director of the nuclear energy division.

Dukovany and Temelín will use fuel from two suppliers for some time. According to ČEZ representatives, diversifying fuel supplies is one of the important steps in further strengthening the Czech Republic’s energy security. The Czech Republic currently has six nuclear units at two power plants. „We plan to deliver to Dukovany the latest version based on fuel assemblies designed for VVER-440 reactors, which are already in use at Ukraine’s Rivne Nuclear Power Plant,“ said Tarik Choho, president of Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel.

ČEZ began working to increase the number of suppliers at the end of the last decade. Following a tender launched in 2018, ČEZ signed contracts in 2022 with Westinghouse and France’s Framatome to supply fuel assemblies for the Temelín power plant. In 2023, it subsequently signed a contract with Westinghouse for Dukovany as well. The Russian supplier has supplied fuel to Dukovany for nearly 40 years, since the plant began operating.

The four Dukovany units were commissioned one by one between 1985 and 1987. Unit 3 has been undergoing a scheduled outage since 19 January. Outages for the other units are expected to begin at the end of May, in mid-August and at the end of December. Temelín, which has been operating since 2000, plans one outage at each of its two units this year, in April and October.

Last year, the Dukovany power plant generated 14.3 TWh, with its output exceeding the 14 TWh mark for the 13th time. In 2023, the Temelín nuclear power plant exceeded 16 TWh of generation for the second year in a row. ČEZ supplies more than 40 percent of the Czech Republic’s electricity consumption. By 2030, the company wants Temelín and Dukovany to generate a combined 32 TWh annually.