Fuel unloading begins at Czech Dukovany unit 4, detailed inspections ahead

At the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, operators have begun unloading fuel from the reactor of unit 4 for detailed equipment inspections. The unit was shut down as planned on 17 April and will not supply electricity to the grid until approximately the end of June. The fuel is now being gradually placed in an adjacent pool. Once the inspections and servicing are complete, operators will return most of the fuel assemblies to the reactor, replenishing the core with one-fifth fresh fuel. Jana Štefánková, spokesperson for energy company ČEZ, told ČTK today.

Several thousand workers from the power plant and supplier companies are involved in the work planned during the outage. "Unloading the entire reactor core is among the technically most demanding parts of the outage. At the same time, however, it allows us to inspect key reactor and primary circuit equipment in detail before further operation," said Roman Havlín, director of the Dukovany plant.