More than 30,000 pages of documentation and appendices weighing 250 kg were submitted to the Building Authority in Třebíč: that is what the background documents for the application for a zoning permit look like, for one of the most important investment projects in the history of the Czech Republic. Everything is digitised, but, given the legal requirements, the documents had to be submitted in hard form.
In preparing the background documents, the team responsible for the preparation had to obtain, among other things, more than 900 opinions, decisions, consents, and statements from the authorities concerned, or from owners or managers of technical and transport infrastructure, and from other institutions.
“We are proceeding according to a timeline, with the individual stages building on each other. The current trend in the European energy sector confirms our original assumptions that we will definitely need major stable and, above all, emission-free development in the coming decades. And we are doing everything we can to ensure that we can still count on being a modern and successful energy company in the future,” says Daniel Beneš, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of ČEZ.
The zoning procedure, which is conducted pursuant to the Building Act, follows the environmental impact assessment process (the EIA process). As in the case of the permission to deploy a new nuclear source, which has already been obtained, the zoning procedure pertains to up to two blocks with a maximum capacity of up to 2400 MWe.
“We are currently planning to build one block, but the proceedings which build on each other have, since the beginning, pertained to two generation units. Furthermore, proceeding this way gives us the opportunity to make a potential operative decision to change our plan should the situation require it,” adds the CEO of Elektrárna Dukovany II, Petr Závodský.
Elektrárna Dukovany II obtained an EIA consent in 2019. This year, the State Office for Nuclear Safety issued a permit for the company to deploy a nuclear source at the locale. Also included in the approval process this year was the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which issued an authorisation for building a power generation unit. These preparatory steps are not directly linked to the contractor selection process, but by implementing them, ČEZ is fulfilling the approved schedule of preparations.