The electricity that Kořensko makes in one year is produced by Temelín within an hour.  Even then the small hydro power plant on the Vltava annually saves over 1,500 tonnes of CO2 that would have otherwise been released by coal power plants.  The annual output of the small hydro power plant on the Vltava River suffices to supply six hundred households.  For its operation, it uses the wastewater that the nearby nuclear power plant returns to the Vltava, while adhering to strict environmental limits.

“Such uses are an integral component of the operation of a nuclear power plant.  Next to safety, the efficiency of operation is key, and every megawatt hour counts.  There are several options: on the one hand, there can be co-generation of power and heat, on the other the use of “waste” water to generate electricity,” said director of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant Jan Kruml.

Water is carried from the River Vltava to the grounds of the Temelín power plant by pumps from the Hněvkovice Pumping Station.  A few kilometres down the road, the South-Bohemian Power plant returns it to the course of the country’s largest river through the small hydro power plant Kořensko, which started to operate in 1999 and has thus generated 38,387 MWh of electricity.