Dukovany nuke plant unit 1 increases capacity to 512 megawatts

Dukovany nuke plant unit 1 increases capacity to 512 megawatts

Dukovany, South Moravia, Nov 7 (CTK) - The Dukovany nuclear power plant today increased the capacity of unit 1 from 500 to 512 megawatts (MW) for the first time, allowing it to generate more electricity, power plant spokesman Jiri Bezdek told CTK.

This marks the completion of another part of a project covering all four Dukovany units. Unit 3 has had a higher capacity since April and unit 2 since August. CEZ has thus increased the capacity of Dukovany by a total of 36 MW this year.

"The same process awaits us on the last, fourth generating unit, which should reach its new capacity in March next year," said Dukovany head Roman Havlin. The total achievable capacity of Dukovany will then rise by 48 MW to 2,048 MW, and annual electricity production should increase by about 300,000 megawatt-hours, or 0.3 terawatt-hours (TWh).

"As in the case of the first two units, the capacity increase was preceded by several years of preparation and modernisation of technological and safety systems," said Bohdan Zronek, board member and head of the nuclear power division at the plant's operator CEZ.

The Czech Republic has six nuclear units in two power plants. Dukovany produced 14.3 TWh of electricity last year and 12.1 TWh so far this year. Temelin surpassed 16 TWh last year.

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