Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant

The Jaslovské Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) (, abbr. EBO) is a complex of nuclear reactors situated 2.5 km from the village of Jaslovské Bohunice in the Trnava District of western Slovakia.

Bohunice NPP consists of two plants: V1 and V2; both contain two reactor units. The plant was connected to the national power network in stages in the period between 1978 and 1985. The four power reactors are pressurized water reactors of the Soviet VVER-440 design.

Annual electricity generation averages about 12,000 GWh. Upon development of a district heating supply network in the town of Trnava near Bohunice NPP, V2 switched to co-generation. Part of this system is a heat feeder line commissioned in 1987. In 1997, a heat feeder line to Leopoldov and Hlohovec was created, branching off from the Trnava line.

Bohunice A1 (shut down)

The A1 is a nuclear reactor situated on the Jaslovské Bohunice site. It was built between 1958 and 1972, and it was the first nuclear power plant in Czechoslovakia. It had one experimental reactor, the KS-150, designed in Czechoslovakia, which used non-enriched uranium as a fuel. Unlike conventional reactors, refuelling was carried out with the reactor in operation. From the beginning, however, there were many problems with the operation of the reactor, and a number of accidents occurred, related to the reactor's experimental design. The first accident took place in 1976, during the replacement of fuel cells, costing the lives of two people. A second major accident, which received a fourth-degree rating by INES, occurred during refuelling on 22 February 1977. A decision was subsequently made to shut down the reactor, due to the high cost of repairs following the accident as well as inefficiency of operation. Czechoslovakia decided to build additional conventional Soviet reactors of the VVER type instead, which have a higher power output with a more efficient operational process. The A1 power plant was closed and began a decommissioning and cleanup process.

Bohunice V1 (shut down)

As a condition of accession into the European Union in 2004, Slovakia was required to deactivate the two reactors at the V1 plant. A provision in the accession treaty allowed for reactivation in case of an emergency.

The V1 plant was exempted from the sale of Slovenské Elektrárne to Enel and transferred to the Slovak Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS), a national nuclear decommissioning company fully owned by the state. The first reactor was shut down at the end of 2006 and the second on the last day of 2008.

The Russia-Ukraine gas dispute in January 2009 disrupted natural gas supplies and electricity generation. On 10 January 2009, the Slovak government ordered the second reactor, then still undergoing a shutdown procedure, to be returned to power-generation-capable mode. The reactor was ultimately not reconnected to the grid, and the final shutdown resumed.

Bohunice V2 (operating)

Bohunice V2 consists of two second-generation VVER-440/213 units that went online on 20 August 1984 and 18 December 1985, respectively. In November 2010, both reactors were uprated from 440 MW to 505 MW (gross electrical output), and operation is planned to be maintained until 2025.

Bohunice V3 (planned)

In May 2009, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and Czech PM Jan Fischer announced construction of a new reactor unit at Bohunice. A partnership of JAVYS and the Czech energy company ČEZ will build the plant at a projected cost of around 3.7 billion euros. Specification of the new reactor have not been settled upon but will be rated at between 600 and 1,600 MWe. Four manufacturers have been mooted as possible suppliers: Mitsubishi, Atomenergoprojekt, Westinghouse, and Areva. At the time, ČEZ considered combining this project with their concurrent construction of the third and fourth reactors at Temelín Nuclear Power Station, which was ultimately canceled in April 2013.

References

External links

Presentation about decommissioning of A1



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Nuclear power stations in Slovakia
Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations
Nuclear power stations using VVER reactors