Technicians began preparations for resuming operation of the Unit 4 at NPP Dukovany. They finished all controls including necessary adjustments and began the phase of starting the block, when all necessary tests will be carried before restarting of the block. The block stopped producing electricity last Friday due to preventive pipe inspections on the secondary circuit of the steam generators.

The recommendation to shut down the unit followed from the controls carried out during the planned outage of Unit 2. These controls used a newly qualified, highly sensitive method of ultrasound inspection for diagnostics. In accordance with the system of checks and inspections the engineers will also check the same parts of the technology on the Units 3 and 1. The unplanned outage of Unit 3 will be used to carry out some of the works originally planned for this year´s regular fuel removal outage. “Our newly introduced mechanisms work as they should and the new technologies proved their purpose,” says Bohdan Zronek, Nuclear Energy Division Director.  The NPP Dukovany introduced a number of new methods in the past few years, which are used both in regular operation and also during outages for fuel exchange.

Controls of Unit 3 will begin on Sunday April 22^th. “We will use this temporary shutdown to carry out a number of works and subsequently we will be able to optimize the regular outage for fuel exchange, which is planned for the Winter 2018/2019,” explains director of the NPP Milos Stepanovsky. The diagnostic inspections on Unit 1 will be joined with the planned fuel exchange outage. According to the experts, the controls will not affect supplies of electricity to the market.