CEZ a s : On Friday, ČEZ will shut down the Temelín Unit 1 as planned. The power plant technicians will perform checks and replace a part of the fuel assemblies

14. 4. 2022

Nuclear power plants

On Friday, ČEZ will shut down the Temelín Unit 1 as planned. The power plant technicians will perform checks and replace a part of the fuel assemblies

Safety system checks, six dozens of investment projects, replacement of a part of fuel assemblies, or replacement of an electricity generation part. These are just examples of the most important works during the Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 planned outage. Overall, ČEZ plans to conduct almost sixteen thousand planned activities for two months.

The power plant's shutdown is planned for Friday night and will occur at approximately one-third of the reactor rated power. According to the power plant management, this will be a common outage associated with essential checks and investment activities.

"We will replace a quarter of the fuel assemblies, check the safety systems and implement 62 investment actions that further increase safety and efficiency,"

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

A lot of work awaits the technicians around the turbine and especially on the generator, where they will change its rotor and protective shield. "We will place a backup rotor into the generator, and the manufacturer will then review the existing one, which will serve as a backup in the years to come. It is a common procedure. We replaced the rotors at Unit 2 three years ago," said Jan Kruml, adding that it is precisely on the turbine generator that they will be forced to work the entire outage.

Substantial work will include inspections of safety divisions, replacing 42 out of 163 fuel assemblies, or replacing one of three transformer units. Out of the 62 investment actions, the continued replacement of a part of the piping of the essential service water system will be challenging, where the technicians will replace the carbon steel pipes with stainless steel ones.

"Outages are the most demanding period of the year for us, and we need to coordinate thousands of activities in limited time-space. The safe and high-quality performance of the works is the basis for the safe and long-term operation of the key Czech emission-free energy source,"

emphasized the importance of the outages. Bohdan Zronek, member of the ČEZ Board of Directors and Director of the nuclear Energy Division.

Including the external suppliers, around a thousand people participate in the outage works. It is the first planned outage at Temelín this year, and the two-month outage of Unit 2 will begin in the second half of July.

Unit 1 has been in continuous operation since May 22 last year. In almost eleven months, Unit 1 produced over 8,5 million MWh of emission less electricity and allowed to save almost seven million tons of CO2, which would otherwise have been released by coal-fired power plants.

Marek Sviták , mluvčí ČEZ, Jaderná elektrárna Temelín