Planned outage at a unit at Czechia's Dukovany plant ends overnight; it had not generated electricity since 19 January

The planned outage of Unit 3 at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, which involved replacing part of the fuel, routine inspections and equipment maintenance, ended overnight. The unit had not supplied electricity to the grid since 19 January. Energy workers reconnected the first turbine-generator set three minutes after midnight and the second at 4:13. Plant spokesperson Jiří Bezděk told CTK today. All four Dukovany units are now in operation.

„Operators are currently increasing the unit’s output and carrying out further required equipment tests and inspections,“ the spokesperson said.

Energy workers restarted the fission reaction in the reactor on Easter Monday morning. The unit is expected to reach full capacity around the turn of the week.

Energy workers carried out more than 17,000 tasks on the shut-down Unit 3, completing them several days ahead of schedule, according to ČEZ. The most time- and technically demanding tasks were inspecting and cleaning the heat-transfer surfaces of the steam generator, carrying out a major overhaul of two of the six main circulation pumps, and overhauling both steam turbines.

This was the first outage at Dukovany this year. The Dukovany units have switched from 11-month to 15-month fuel cycles, so this year there will be only three unit outages involving fuel replacement, rather than the four carried out previously.

Czechia currently has six nuclear units at two power plants. The Dukovany plant generated 14.3 TWh of electricity last year. In 2023, the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant exceeded 16 TWh of generation for the second consecutive year.

ČEZ is preparing to build a new nuclear power source at Dukovany. EDF, KHNP and Westinghouse submitted bids in the tender for the new unit. The bids included non-binding options for additional reactors. The government then invited EDF and KHNP to submit binding offers to build up to four new reactors at Dukovany and Temelín. The contract with the selected supplier is expected to be signed around the turn of 2024 and 2025, and the first reactor at Dukovany is due to start operating in 2036.

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