Czech Temelín extends outages; no units to operate for 10 days

ČEZ today announced an extension of outages at the Temelín nuclear power plant. The longer outage will affect both the currently shut-down Unit 2 and Unit 1. This follows from data published by ČEZ and the oEnergetice.cz website's nuclear power plant operations monitoring.

According to current outage data published by ČEZ, the outage at Temelín Unit 2 will be extended by 10 days. However, the outage extension will have a greater impact on Unit 1, which is scheduled to be shut down on 26 August. Its outage was originally due to end on 21 October, but the end of the outage is now scheduled 25 days later, on 15 November.

As a result, neither Temelín unit will be in operation from 26 August to 4 September.

The outage is due to additional inspections of the low-pressure sections of the turbine units and other equipment. Although Temelín uses different methods for non-destructive testing of important welds, experts also inspected nearly 2,000 additional welds using X-rays, compared with the original plan.

“Safety is always the priority – certainty and knowledge of the condition of the equipment. We also used the time for additional inspections to complete some work in advance for future outages. They could therefore be shorter next year,” explained plant director Bohdan Zronek.

Following the outage update, actual generation at the Temelín nuclear power plant this year is estimated at 13.5 TWh. The new outages will also reduce Temelín's actual generation by an estimated 0.63 TWh.

This is already the latest in several instances this year (here and here) in which outages at nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic have been extended. Most recently, a significant extension of outages was announced at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, resulting in a substantial reduction in estimated generation.

Dukovany is applying this year for an extension of the operating licence for Unit 2. The following year, Units 3 and 4 at Dukovany will also apply for operating permits.