The Dukovany Nuclear Power Station () is a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

near Dukovany in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It was the second nuclear power plant in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

(the Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in what is now Slovakia was constructed in 1958), and the first one in what is now the Czech Republic. It is situated from the town of

Třebíč Třebíč (; ) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 35,000 inhabitants. The beginnings of the town's history are connected with the establishment of a Benedictines, Benedictine monastery, where the castle is loca ...

, near the Dalešice Reservoir, where the plant sources its water supply. In 1970

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

ratified a contract for construction of two nuclear power plants. Actual construction work began four years later. From 1985 to 1987, four power units with

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan, India and Canada). In a PWR, water is used both as ...

s were commissioned. All four are still in operation. Dukovany nuclear power plant supplies approximately 14 TWh of electric energy annually to the national power network. The plant is owned and operated by ČEZ Group. The power plant modernisation will successively be carried out to the end of its planned service life.

Plant characteristics

The plant has four reactors. As of 31 December 2011 ČEZ reported turbine generator output (gross capacity) as listed below. Net capacity is a baseline estimate only. In 2005, Unit 3 was upgraded to 456 MWe gross capacity, and the same upgrade was made to Unit 1 and Unit 4 in 2007. Unit 3 was further upgraded in 2009 to 500MWe. In total an extra 240 MWe of capacity has been or will be added before 2013 in a comprehensive program of improvements including steam plant replacement, addition of instrumentation and fuel changes. The reactors are fuelled by uranium dioxide UO₂. Fuel is placed in the reactor in 312 fuel assemblies. Each assembly consists of 126 fuel rods with a hermetically sealed fuel. Dukovany Nuclear Power Station has 8 cooling towers, each 125 metres tall. In 1994, a visitor information centre was opened at the site. West of the facility there is a 136 metre tall guyed tower for monitoring air radioactivity. In 2023, ČEZ planned to invest more than CZK2.3 billion ($105 million) mainly to ensure "safe and reliable operation until at least 2047" with a lifetime of at least 60 years. The units are also switching to a 16-month fuel replacement cycle from the current 12-month cycle.

Power distribution

The power lines leaving Dukovany Nuclear Power Station are mainly installed on delta type pylons. They run to Slavetice substation situated at 49°6'15" N and 16°7'10" E. At this substation the powerline to Dürnrohr in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

starts. Plant owner ČEZ plans to install a district heating circuit to supply heat to homes and businesses in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

. A pipeline over 40 kilometres in length could be installed after regional officials have considered ČEZ's

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

for the project, submitted in July 2010.

Replacement

In 2019 the Czech government gave preliminary approval for at least one new nuclear power unit for about 2035 to replace the four units expected to shut down between 2035 and 2037. The financial model proposed is a state guarantee so finance can be obtained at government interest rates, but no subsidy on operating costs or above market-price electricity rates. In January 2021 Chinese companies were excluded from bidding for political and security reasons, following advice from the security services of EU and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

member states. In April 2021, it was announced that Russia's

Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (commonly referred to as Rosatom rus, Росатом, p=rosˈatəm}), also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, (), or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), sta ...

would be excluded as well, after it has been alleged that two Russian agents were perpetrators of the 2014 Vrbětice ammunition warehouses explosions. In June 2021, the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade invited EDF, along with Westinghouse and

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP; ) is a subsidiary of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). It operates large nuclear and hydroelectric plants in South Korea, which are responsible for about 31.56 percent of the country's electric power ...

(KHNP) to participate in a pre-qualification round for a new unit at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Station. EDF is proposing a 1200 MWe version of the EPR for the project, named the EPR-1200. On 31 October 2023, the three companies delivered bids for

AP1000 The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse Electric Company. The plant is a pressurized water reactor with improved use of passive nuclear safety and many design features intended to lower its capital cost and improve ...

, APR1000 and EPR-1200 reactors respectively. The bids will be evaluated with the aim of construction starting in 2029 with first trial operation in 2036. In July 2024 it was announced that KHNP had been selected to construct two APR1000 reactors rated at 1,055 MWe for a cost of US$8.6bn each.

Recent event

In 2024, the Czech government selected

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) to construct two APR-1000 reactors at the Dukovany site, each with a capacity of 1,055 megawatts. This decision is part of the country's long-term strategy to increase the share of nuclear energy to up to 50% of national electricity production by 2050. Estimated at approximately $18 billion, the Dukovany expansion represents the largest energy investment in Czech history. The project is being overseen by the state-owned energy company ČEZ, with the government holding an 80% stake in the subsidiary responsible for the new reactors. In January 2025, a preliminary agreement was signed with KHNP; however, in May 2025, the signing of the final contract was temporarily paused due to a legal challenge from the French company EDF, a competing bidder. The delay is procedural, pending judicial review. Despite this, the Czech government remains committed to the project, with trial operations of the first new reactor expected by 2036 and the second by 2038. Later in May the European Commission (EC) asked Czech governmet to delay signing the contract, citing concerns over the tender process and potential legal issues. This has sparked criticism from Czech industry leaders, who argue that postponing the deal could harm the country's energy security and economic interests.

Popular culture

The Dukovany reactor complex appears in the

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

'' Tom Clancy's EndWar'' as a potential battlefield.

References

External links

Profile at International Nuclear Safety Program websiteOfficial pages of ČEZ
{{Authority control Energy infrastructure completed in 1985 Energy infrastructure completed in 1987 Nuclear power stations in the Czech Republic Třebíč District Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations Nuclear power stations using VVER reactors Buildings and structures in the Vysočina Region 1985 establishments in Czechoslovakia 20th-century architecture in the Czech Republic