Krško nuclear power plant

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Krško nuclear power plant
View of the Krško nuclear power plant
View of the Krško nuclear power plant
location
Krško nuclear power plant (Slovenia)
Krško nuclear power plant
Coordinates 45 ° 56 '18 "  N , 15 ° 30' 56"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 56 '18 "  N , 15 ° 30' 56"  E
Country: Slovenia
Data
Owner: Republic of Slovenia / Republic of Croatia
Operator: GEN energija doo,
Hrvatska Elektroprivreda
Commercial operation: Jan. 1, 1983

Active reactors (gross):

1 (727 MW)
Energy fed in in 2018: 5490 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning: 177,720 GWh
Website: https://www.nek.si/en
Was standing: February 23, 2020
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .
f1

The nuclear power plant Krško [ ˈkərʃkɔ ] ( Slovenian Jedrska elektrarna Krško (JEK), also Nuklearna elektrarna Krško (NEK), Croatian Nuklearna elektrana Krško ) was built in the 1970s in what was then Yugoslavia and belongs to Croatia and Slovenia . The nuclear power plant is officially owned by GEN energija d. o. o. operated in Krško. The power plant has a net electrical output of 696  MW .

Krško is located in Slovenia , about 20 km as the crow flies from the Croatian border, 40 km west of Zagreb and 260 km south of Vienna.

history

The nuclear power plant during a flood in 2010

The pressurized water reactor of the US company Westinghouse was built in the 1970s as a 50:50 project by the two Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia and commissioned in 1981. The planning of the power plant was developed by the American Gilbert Associates Inc. made. The construction work was carried out by the Yugoslav companies Gradis and Hidroelektra . The installation was carried out by the Yugoslav companies Hidromotaža and Đuro Đaković .

The Krško nuclear power plant was the only nuclear power plant in Yugoslavia; At the end of the 1980s it provided 20% of the electricity consumption of SR Slovenia and 18% of the electricity consumption of SR Croatia , in total this corresponded to 5% of the total consumption of Yugoslavia.

Between 1981 and 1989 reactor operations were interrupted more than 70 times. An operating permit should not have been available in 1989.

After the disintegration of Yugoslavia (1992) there were several disputes between the now independent republics over the power plant. This involved outstanding electricity payments and partial assumption of operating costs from Croatia. In 2001 legal and operational issues were resolved by the governments. Since 2003 the power plant has been supplying both owners again.

The power plant covers approx. 40% of the Slovenian and approx. 15% of the Croatian electricity demand.

The nuclear reactor was designed and built for 40 years of operation.

The owner of the nuclear power plant would like (as of 2009) to build a second reactor on site. Investments amounting to 2.5 billion euros are assumed. The reactor should have an output between 1200 MW and 1500 MW. The block is to be built east of the existing one. In August 2009 an Italian partnership was discussed for the construction of the block; A decision on the project should be made in 2013 or 2014 at the earliest. For the existing block, the power plant operator Template: future / in 5 yearsapplied for an extension of the operating license until 2043 .

On July 21, 2015, it was announced that the Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure Peter Gašperič and his Croatian colleague Ivan Vrdoljak agreed at a meeting in Krško Template: future / in 5 yearsto operate the power plant until 2043 ; the nuclear power plant is "safe and economical".

risk

The nuclear power plant is particularly controversial because it is located in an earthquake-prone area. However, according to the final PHARE report on the geophysical survey of the Krško area, “no major seismogenic risk factors can be found at the location of the nuclear power plant”. According to the IAEA , the safety of the nuclear power plant in 2007 complied with all international standards and the highest safety requirements.

In 2008, the Vienna Environmental Ombudsman, among others, voiced serious concerns about the seismic stability of the site. In particular, the greatest magnitudes to be expected exceeded the values ​​used in the planning.

Greenpeace Slovenia commissioned an investigation. This confirms that the Krško nuclear power plant would not be able to withstand a strong earthquake, which occurs in Slovenia on average every 200 years. After the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster (2011 in Japan), Greenpeace pleaded against a second reactor block (NEK 2) in an open letter to the Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor .

In 2013 it became known that the French Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Safety IRSN had spoken out against the construction of a second reactor block in view of the active tectonic fault Libna . At the instigation of GEN energija, the IRSN carried out geomechanical, geological and seismic investigations for possible locations of a second nuclear power plant for several years. The Slovenian ( Geološki zavod Slovenije ) and the French geological service ( Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières ), which are also members of the consortium, do not agree with this assessment. In the meantime, GEN energija has terminated its cooperation with the IRSN.

Atomic interim storage facility

At present (as of early 2010) the spent fuel elements are still stored on the power plant site. The construction and safety of a nuclear interim storage facility (Slov. NSRO = storage facility for low and medium-level radioactive waste) for spent fuel on the site of the Krško NPP is also controversial in Slovenia.

It was planned to set up an interim storage facility in Vrbina and put it into operation in 2013. Construction had not started until the end of 2013. The cost of such a warehouse is estimated at 146 million euros for the Slovenian part only.

Incidents

  • In 1989, the correct reaction to an operational malfunction was to open a pressure relief valve in the reactor circuit. After the pressure transient had dissipated, it remained unexpectedly stuck in the open position (as before the meltdown accident in 1979 in Three Mile Island ). Due to the associated loss of cooling water, the emergency cooling switched on automatically (in contrast to Three Mile Island, it was not switched off again by mistake by the staff). After about fifteen minutes the valve still closed and the emergency cooling had refilled the reactor circuit to some extent. After the incident, slightly radioactive water had to be removed from the containment swamp by pouring it into the neighboring Save River . (Source: SKI Report IRS)
  • On September 25, 1995, control technology errors caused an unwanted valve closure in one of the two lines that carry the generated steam to the turbine. This only led to a brief disruption of the thermal equilibrium in the reactor circuit (with a brief opening of a pressure relief valve) because the reactor shutdown became effective around 1.3 seconds later . If this had worked late or not at all, serious problems would have arisen: The above-mentioned line closure prevents the normal preheating of the feed water from a branch in the steam line leading into the steam generator and via heat exchange there into the reactor circuit . In terms of nuclear physics, this cooling of the feed water has the consequence that the reactor output increases rapidly due to excess criticality . This can lead to an beyond design accident.
  • On April 10, 2005, the staff made some mistakes during a turbine shutdown test. This caused an emergency shutdown of the turbine, which in turn resulted in the rapid shutdown of the reactor, the feedwater insulation with triggering of the emergency feed and a shorter-term activation of the high-pressure emergency cooling .
  • On June 4, 2008 at 3:07 pm there was a loss of coolant accident . Coolant leaked into the main cooling system (primary circuit) and the reactor output was then throttled. The reactor was shut down and shut down completely at 8:10 p.m. to investigate the cause of the problem. According to the Slovenian nuclear supervisory authority, the leaked radioactive water was caught in the containment , a safety container . There were no effects outside the nuclear power plant. The incident was classified as "unusual", the lowest level of danger. There was no danger to the personnel of the nuclear power plant. The leak was located in the isolation valve of a collecting line for temperature measuring points, near one of the two main coolant pumps, and about 3 m³ / h leaked there. In order to repair it, it had to be shut down to the cold state. In the afternoon, the Slovenian Atomic Safety Authority ( SNSA ) informed the IAEA , the information exchange system in the event of radioactive incidents, ECURIE (European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange), and the neighboring countries of the accident. It was the first activation of this information system since its introduction after the Chernobyl disaster . In the “NEWS system” of the IAEA, Slovenia has classified the incident as a reportable event of level 0 on the International Rating Scale for Nuclear Events . There was confusion in the flow of information, because while an incident was reported via ECURIE, the neighboring countries were erroneously informed about an exercise case. The cost of the incident is estimated at $ 12 million.
  • On February 25, 2013, a valve malfunction caused an emergency shutdown.
  • Mechanical damage to three nuclear fuel rods was discovered in October 2013 during routine annual maintenance . The report by the competent authority states that “during the 26th burning cycle on July 18, 2012, a sudden increase in the activity of the isotopes of xenon and iodine was detected. Their activities continued to increase steadily up to the end of 2012 ”. The increase in radioactivity in the primary circuit was interpreted as an indication that one or two fuel rods (out of a total of 235 per fuel element ; there are 121 fuel elements) had leaked. Mechanical damage to fuel rods with a diameter of approx. 1 cm has already occurred in the past; but these were less serious. One of the three damaged fuel rods is now on the bottom of the spent fuel. The reasons for the damage described are still unknown. They may be due to the slightly modified new reactor cover or a foreign part, e.g. B. a piece of steel that has been forgotten in the reactor during regular maintenance. The fuel rods are also exposed to a relatively high cooling water pressure during operation, so that they can break if they have not been properly manufactured. As a makeshift, all leaking fuel rods were removed, four fuel elements are mechanically stabilized at the point where the water pressure was highest by installing four empty fuel rods. This temporary solution should be fundamentally resolved during the next routine maintenance in 2015.
  • Between 2014 and 2020, several earthquakes occurred in the power plant zone.
  • In February 2017 there was an emergency shutdown after a problem in the cooling system.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Krško nuclear power plant has one block :

Reactor block Reactor type net
power
gross
power
start of building Network
synchronization
Commercialization
of essential operation
switching off
processing
Krško Pressurized water reactor 688 MW 727 MW 03/30/1975 10/02/1981 01/01/1983 (Planned for 2043)Template: future / in 5 years

See also

literature

  • Article Nuklearna elektrarna Krško , in: Enciklopedija Slovenije, Volume 8, 1994
  • Article Jedrska energija , in: Enciklopedija Slovenije, Volume 4, 1990
  • James P. Nichol et al. Gordon L. McDaniel: Yugoslavia , in: Nuclear power in developing countries , ed. v. James E. Katz et al. Onkar S. Marwah, 1982, ISBN 0-669-04700-7 , pp. 345-367.

Web links

Commons : Krško Nuclear Power Plant  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. luftlinie.org: Zagreb , Vienna
  2. Chernobyl in Yugoslavia? In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1989, pp. 165 ( online ).
  3. Olga Ramljak: Hrvatska Sloveniji oprašta 200 milijuna dolara duga (Croatian) . In: Slobodna Dalmacija , September 24, 2001. Retrieved July 13, 2010. 
  4. GEN energija ( memento of April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 24, 2014
  5. Croatia, Slovenia's nuclear plant safe: Croatian president article from March 28, 2011 (English)
  6. WNA Slovenia (English)
  7. Italy possible partner for new Slovenian nuclear power plant . Der Standard, August 11, 2009.
  8. ^ Krško breakdown nuclear power plant should continue to run . Courier, April 26, 2017.
  9. ^ Slovenia and Croatia extend the term of the Krsko nuclear power plant , ORF.at citing the Slovenian radio, July 21, 2015.
  10. Slovenia - Nuclear Safety ( Memento of June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. Chapter NUCLEAR POWER SITUATION, Overview ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); September 29, 2007
  12. Krsko Sicherheit ( Memento from June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ^ Vienna Environmental Ombudsman: Krsko NPP ( Memento of June 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  14. Greenpeace proti Nek2 (Greenpeace against Block 2 of the Krško nuclear power plant) Dolenjski list of March 16, 2011, (Slovenian).
  15. Online edition of the slow. Weekly magazine Mladina from March 22, 2013 (Slovenian)
  16. Strokovnjaki mirijo, pomisleki ostajajo (experts calm down, concerns persist) in Dolenjski list, p. 1, February 25, 2010, No. 8
  17. A. Kerin: Zakaj odlagališče še vedno na čakanju? (German: Why is the warehouse still on hold?), Dolenjski list , December 27, 2013, p. 3
  18. http://www.djs.si/proc/port1996/1304.pdf
  19. Andrej Prošek, Borut Mavko: RELAP5 / MOD3.3 Code Validation with Plant Abnormal Event , 2008. doi: 10.1155 / 2008/745178
  20. Nuclear incident triggers EU-wide alarm ( memento from June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at ftd.de, June 4, 2008 (accessed on June 4, 2008)
  21. Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration ( Memento from June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  22. WANO announcement from June 5, 2008
  23. ^ A b Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration ( Memento from June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  24. ec.europa.eu: Energy - Nuclear Issues ( Memento of June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  25. IAEA NEWS Events ( Memento from May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  26. orf.at: word "exercise" not deleted ( memento of June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on ORF of June 5, 2008
  27. tagesschau.de: Costs of failed nuclear power plant projects: Billions in investments without income ( Memento from June 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ^ Thyroid abnormalities in Fukushima children. In: derStandard.at. February 27, 2013, accessed December 10, 2017 .
  29. quoted in the newspaper Dolenjski list
  30. A. Kerin: Tri gorivne palice poškodovane (German: Three fuel rods damaged), Dolenjski list, p. 10, October 17, 2013
  31. Staš Zgonik: Uhajanje jedrskega goriva (German: The escape of nuclear fuel), Slow. Weekly Mladina, p. 11, October 25, 2013
  32. A. Kerin: Odkrili vzrok, a rešitev le začasna (German: The cause has been discovered, but the solution is only temporary), Dolenjski list , October 30, 2013, p. 1
  33. Despite the series of breakdowns: Krško nuclear power plant back on the grid. In: Kronenzeitung . February 17, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2017 .
  34. Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "Slovenia, Republic of: Nuclear Power Reactors - Alphabetic" (English)
  35. July 21, 2015: Partners agree on life extension for Krško (English)