18. 8. 2023

ČEZ will shut down the Temelín Unit 2 for checking and replacing fuel assemblies today

Checks of safety systems, of the turbine, 69 investment actions or the replacement of a part of fuel assemblies. These are just examples of the most important works to be carried out during the planned Unit 2 outage of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. The technicians will disconnect the Unit from the transmission system tonight. Overall, ČEZ company plans to do almost fifteen thousand activities, which it preliminarily designed for two months.

The technicians plan the actual trip of the Unit 2 generator from the transmission system for today evening at approximately one-third of the reactor rated output. According to the power plant management, this will be a standard outage associated with essential checks and investment activities.

"We will replace 48 of the total 163 fuel assemblies; for example, we will check safety divisions, the main circulation pump or the containment building tensioning system around the reactor. Also, the turbine will undergo a detailed inspection,"

said Jan Kruml, Director of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant.

The technicians are also facing 69 investment actions aimed at modernizing and further strengthening the power plant's safety. Such an example will be the modernization of the generator exciter control system or the modernization of an important safety system that provides power supply to the backup batteries.

For ČEZ, this is the fifth of this year's six nuclear power plant outages. Last week, energy workers connected the Dukovany Unit 1 after a two-month outage. ČEZ company coordinates the outages of Temelín and Dukovany so that their confluence is minimal.

"This is important in terms of the suppliers' transmission system and personnel capacity, who mostly carry out the same activities at both power plants. In this case, too, the beginning of the outage of the Temelín Unit 2 and the end of the outage of the Dukovany Unit are linked,"

said Bohdan Zronek, Member of the ČEZ Board of Directors and Director of the Nuclear Energy Division.

Including the external suppliers, around one thousand people are involved in the outage works. It is the final planned outage at Temelín this year. Unit 1 has been shut down for inspection and replacement of fuel assemblies for less than two months, from 7 April to 8 June.

 

 

Since the beginning of the year, the Temelín power plant has produced 10.3 terawatt hours of electricity. Together with Dukovany, these sources make the most considerable amount of clean electricity and thus contribute significantly to ČEZ Group's emission-free production. Annually, approximately two ten million tons of CO2 have not been released into the atmosphere thanks to nuclear power plants.