Dukovany Unit 4 containment confirmed airtight

Dukovany Unit 4 containment confirmed airtight

Dukovany,, South Moravia, June 19 (CTK) -Technicians have assessed the integrity of the hermetic compartments at Unit 4 of the Dukovany nuclear power plant, which is currently offline, and confirmed that the containment structure is airtight and meets safety requirements, plant spokesman. Radek Dolezal told CTK today.

The unit has been shut down since April 17 and is expected to resume supplying electricity to the grid at the end of this month or the beginning of next month.

Hermetic compartments are one of the main protective barriers at a nuclear power plant. They protect the plant's equipment from external influences. During tests, the structures are subjected to overpressure. During normal operation, however, a slight negative pressure is maintained inside them, Dolezal said.

Tightness tests are conducted during every scheduled unit outage. Even with advance preparation, the tests on Unit 4 took about 30 hours and involved dozens of experts.

"The measured values confirmed the system's high level of leak tightness and the equipment's excellent technical condition," said Dukovany head Roman Havlin.

During every scheduled unit outage, in addition to servicing and inspecting the equipment, power plant operators replace approximately one-fifth of the fuel assemblies in the reactor.

The Czech Republic has six nuclear units at two power plants, which together generated 32.066 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity last year. Of that total, the Dukovany plant supplied 14.68 TWh to the transmission grid. This year, the Dukovany plant has generated 6.87 TWh so far.

Four Dukovany units were commissioned between 1985 and 1987. According to current projections by CEZ, they will be able to operate for up to 80 years from their commissioning, that is until 2065-2067. The contract to build two additional units at Dukovany was awarded to the South Korean company KHNP.

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