Press releases pg. 180

"CEZ has generated for the first half of this year the profits after taxes amounting to CZK 3 billion, i.e. more by CZK 2.5 billion (430 %) compared with the same period of the preceding year. This considerable growth is, however, considerably influenced by the favourable development of provisions for exchange-rate variances due to a better rate of exchange of CZK, modified structure of our debt in foreign currencies and also to the fact that the comparison base of the last first half-year had included the discontinuation of retrofit of Tusimice I power plant..."

After the fuel charging in the reactor of Unit One has been successfully completed on 14th July 2000 by completion and sealing of the reactor by IAEA of Vienna on Wednesday, 26th July, the preparation of the unit for the reactor start-up continues with another important test. That is the reconfirmation test of containment started today. The containment is the basic security element and the fourth barrier between the nuclear fuel and the environment round the nuclear power plant. The containment also protects the most important parts of the nuclear power plant from external effects.

All seismologic stations within Temelin monitoring network recorded this Tuesday, 11th July 2000, at 0450 hours local time the main tremor caused by the earthquake in Lower Austria near the village Ebreichsdorf, some 25 kilometers from Vienna. According to the analysis performed by the Institute of Physics of the Earth at the Masaryk's University in Brno, the maximal value of ground shifting at the locality of Temelin NPP was 13 micrometers for the prevailing frequency of 4Hz.

The repeated request raised by the Austrian party to inspect the nuclear safety of Temelin NPP on the international level is breaking into an open door. In Temelin NPP this request has been performed already since the spring 1990, in Dukovany 1989 even from September 1989. Commencing from 1990 twelve extensive IAEA missions of Vienna and numerous other international analytical groups visited Temelin NPP. Thousands of hours of work of the experts resulted in recommendations for improvement of NPP design.