Unit 4 of the Dukovany NPP in the Czech Republic has resumed operation following a scheduled outage for refuelling and upgrading. The power output of the VVER-440 reactor has now been increased to 512 MWe. Four VVER-440 units are currently in operation at the Dukovany site, which began operating between 1985 and 1987. They are scheduled for decommissioning no later than 2045-2047.
Dukovany 4 was closed in late December and over the next two months it was refuelled and upgraded involving 48 investment projects, a number of inspections and tests, in preparation for increased power output.
“We pursued two long-term main goals – safe and reliable operation for at least 60 years and gradually to increase the average annual production up to 32 TWh, said Bohdan Zronek, Member of the Board of Directors of power company ČEZ and Director of the Nuclear Energy Division. “And it is the modernisation of equipment and the use of project reserves that will help us meet these goals.”
Now all four units will be able to supply a total of 2,048 MWe to the network – almost 300 MWe more than was the case when unit 4 was first launched, 38 years ago. The units were gradually upgraded from 440 MWe to 500 MWe over nine years and have now been further upgraded to 512 MWe.
“Increasing the power of units from 500 MWe to the current 512 MWe was preceded by a huge amount of work. It is always a condition that we must not reduce the level of safety. That is why we still have a number of tests and trials that we have just started,” explained Plant Director Roman Havlín. Units 1-3 have been operating with increased output since last year. For the first time in its history, the Dukovany units will now achieve an output of 4 x 512 MWe.
The Czech Republic currently gets about one-third of its electricity from nuclear – two VVER-1000 units in operation at Temelín and the four VVER-440 units at Dukovany.
