The Czech energy company (CEZ) has received approval from the National Atomic Energy Agency (SUJB) to place two new reactors at the Dukovany nuclear power plant. This was announced by the CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz on Monday. The approval applies to two reactors with an output of up to 1,200 megawatts each, it said. The South Moravian nuclear reactor is only about 50 kilometers from the Austrian border. The Greens in Austria expressed harsh criticism.
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According to Kriz, this is one of the most important preparatory steps before selecting the technology supplier and before starting construction. It took five years to write the documentation, which contains over 200 studies and analyzes. The SUJB boss Dana Drabova said that the assessment had not revealed any facts that would stand in the way of the approval.
Martin Litschauer, anti-nuclear spokesman for the Austrian Greens, spoke on Monday of an extremely bad deal for the Czech population. Nuclear electricity is already up to five times as expensive as electricity from modern renewable sources. In addition, nuclear power also has significant CO2 emissions in the value chain, which should not be made small. “I consider the signals in the direction of expansion to be fatal in terms of a nature-friendly, risk-minimizing and economically sensible energy turnaround,” explained Litschauer.
Although the SUJB approval affects two reactors, the construction of only one reactor is currently planned. However, this is always delayed. According to the government's plans, the first new reactor should go online between 2035 and 2037. The costs for this are estimated at up to 7.5 billion euros. The order has not yet been awarded.
So far, no selection process has been started, although it was planned until the end of 2020. There is also a dispute as to whether Russian and Chinese companies should also take part in the tender. The right-wing liberal opposition in particular sees this as a political security risk.
There are currently four reactors in operation there that are more than 30 years old. The state intends to finance 70 percent of the expansion of Dukovany. The remaining 30 percent and any additional costs are to be borne by the Czech energy company (CEZ), 70 percent of which is owned by the state. Austria has protested several times against plans to expand Dukovany. Environmentalists criticize the safety of the plant and consider the pressurized water reactors of the Russian type VVER-440/213 to be out of date. The Dukovany nuclear power plant currently covers around a fifth of Czech electricity consumption. The Czech government in Prague wants to increase the share of nuclear power to more than half by 2040.
