
Jaderná elektrárna Dukovany - Dukovany, Czech Republic
Posted by:
darkMS
N 49° 05.352 E 016° 08.749
33U E 583657 N 5438004
The oldest nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic.
Waymark Code: WM2RB6
Location: Kraj Vysočina, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/13/2007
Views: 278
The following text is taken from CEZ website (www.cez.cz):
The Dukovany Nuclear Power Station is situated approximately 30 km southeast of Trebíc, in a triangle formed by the municipalities of Dukovany, Slavetice and Rouchovany. There are installed four pressurized-water reactors of Type VVER 440 - Model V 213, each generating 440 MW, located in two double units.
Its construction was started in 1974. Change of the project caused postponement of the full start-up of the construction till the year 1978. The first reactor unit was put into operation on 4 May 1985, and the last (the fourth) unit on 20 July 1987. In the vicinity of the power station on the Jihlava River, there was built the Dalešice waterworks with a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station, with a capacity of 450 MW. Its equalizing reservoir serves as a water resource for the nuclear power station.
The Dukovany Nuclear Power Station is intended for a base-load operation mode. It supplies annually approx. 13 TWhr of electric energy to the national power network. Particular attention is paid to the safety of its operation which is supervised on on-going bases by the State Office on Nuclear Safety and relevant international organizations.
The reactors are fuelled by uranium dioxide UO2. Fuel is placed in the reactor in 312 fuel assemblies. Each assembly consists of 126 fuel rods with hermetically sealed fuel. In addition, the reactor contains 37 control rod assemblies with the fuel part. Improved nuclear fuel parameters enabled a smooth transition in 1997 from three- to four-years fuel cycle, and since 2003 five-year cycle is being successively started-up.
The heat in the reactor core generated by the controlled fission of the uranium-235 nuclei is removed from the reactor by cooling demineralized water which also serves as a neutron moderator. In addition, an admixture of the boric acid (max. 12 g/l of water) contributes also to the reactor output regulation.
The cooling water, sealed under a high pressure in the primary reactor circuit, is circulated by means of six independent cooling loops with pumps and steam generators. In the steam generators, the water of the closed primary circuit water passes its heat into the secondary circuit. The secondary circuit is also closed and filled with demineralized water. The secondary circuit water is converted in the steam generators to steam driving the turbines. Each reactor forms a set with two three-casing turbines, each with one high-pressure and two low-pressure sections running at 3,000 revolutions per minute. There are eight such turbines in the power plant. Coupled to each turbine is a 220 MW power generator (double-pole asynchronous alternator generating voltage of 15.75 kV).
Downstream from the turbines the steam of the secondary circuit condenses back to water in the large condensers cooled by water from the tertiary cooling circuit. This circuit is than lead out into cooling towers where the tertiary circuit water is recooled by natural air flow.
The power station modernization will successively be carried out to the end of its planned service life. At present, however, in view of the high quality of its main structural components, an extension of its service life by ten years, i. e. to the total of forty years of operation is being considered.
A storage site for low and medium radioactive waste is situated in the area of the power station. In 1995, a dry storage facility for the spent nuclear fuel was completed in the area of the power station, and after its trial operation an on-going operation was started, its capacity is sixty CASTOR 440/84 containers. The capacity of one such container (10 tons of the spent nuclear fuel) corresponds to the amount of waste produced by one VVER 440 reactor in almost one year. Nevertheless, this storage facility will not be able to take all the spent fuel produced by the power plant during its entire service life. Thus a new facility should be put into operation no later than in 2005, where the spent nuclear fuel will be stored for a period not exceeding 50 years. If, in the meantime, the spent fuel is not utilized as a valuable source of raw materials (at present it is not feasible to recycle the spent nuclear fuel both from the financial and technological point of view), or the so-called transmutation of the spent fuel is not available on a large scale, the spent nuclear fuel will be moved to a permanent deep geological repository.Generation Unit - Dukovany
Installed capacity: 4x 440 MW
Years of commissioning: 1985-1988
Type of reactor: VVER 440
Operational: Yes
 Visitor Center: Yes
 Year Built: 05/04/1985
 Web Address: [Web Link]
 Year Retired: Not listed

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