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The EU "nuclear family" is enlarging by 19 operational units from May.

29. 4. 2004

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The EU "nuclear family" is enlarging by 19 operational units from May.

There were 440 nuclear units in the world at the end of January, 2004, another 31 nuclear units are under construction in the world now. The "union nuclear family" is going to enlarge by another 19 units after the enlargement of the European Union by 10 new countries from May 1, 2004. The countries of the enlarged EU will then use 35.2 % of all operational nuclear units in the world. That also means strengthening of the position within the EU by 4.3 %. There were 136 nuclear units in operation in the countries of the original European fifteen.

 

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are bringing the highest number of units, 6 operational units each, Hungary is bringing 4 units to the EU, Lithuania 2 and Slovenia one nuclear unit. The remaining five countries Poland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia and Malta do not use nuclear energy to produce electricity, so they are going to join the other seven non-nuclear countries in the EU. That means that already 13 countries will use nuclear power industry in the new composition of the 25 EU countries. France has the highest number of operational nuclear units, 59, which provided 77.67 % of electricity generation last year. From May, however, France is losing this dominant position in the Union, as the two Lithuanian nuclear units generated 79.88 % of the country´s electricity output last year. Nuclear units within the EU provided in total 33.1 % of the EU production in 2003. This share should increase to 34 % in the new composition after  the production share of the new ten countries in 2003 is included.

The Czech Republic is bringing six units, in Dukovany and Temelin, with the installed capacity of 3760 MWe to the enlarged EU nuclear family. That is the most of all entering countries and it will represent 2.6 % of the installed capacity of the EU nuclear units. The last year´s electricity generation in the Czech nuclear units of 25 872 GWh of electricity represented a 31.08 % share in the Czech Republic and a 2.8 % share of electricity production of all nuclear units in the enlarged EU. That shows that the production contribution of the Czech nuclear power plants is the largest of all ten new EU countries.

Nuclear power industry and its further development in the Czech Republic, but also in all other countries, are conditional on three basic prerequisites. They are the public approval, safety and competitive advantage on the market. That is also the present motto of the company CEZ.

CEZ adheres to the rigorous recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency and follows the recommendations of a great number of safety-directed inspections. The approach to nuclear power station operations in the Czech Republic is the same, or very similar to the one in the EU and in the world. The continuous further safety improvement of nuclear facilities is a very important part of CEZ´s activities and its contribution to the nuclear power industry field of the enlarging EU.