Detailed site survey begins at Dukovany

The ceremony was attended by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) President Hwang Joo-ho, project development company Elektrárna Dukovany II (EDU II) President Zavodski, Czech Minister of Industry Lukáš Vlček, South Korean Ambassador to the Czech Republic Hong Young-ki, and executives from local survey company CEZ EP.

KHNP said the detailed site survey will be conducted over about the next 12 months. It said, as the first step in the nuclear power plant project, the characteristics of the proposed construction site will be investigated and used as basic data for the design.

_{(Image: KHNP)}

"The detailed site survey is the first on-site process for the Dukovany nuclear power plant project and the practical starting point for the APR1000 design," Hwang Joo-ho said. "This is a crucial task for the timely execution of the contract, and we will conduct the survey thoroughly and systematically according to plan."

The Czech government selected KHNP as its preferred bidder in July 2024 for two APR1000 units near the current Dukovany plant, about 200 kilometres southeast of Prague. Two more units at the Temelin nuclear power plant are also being considered and, according to KHNP "if the Czech government decides within the next three years to proceed with Temelin units 3 and 4, KHNP will be eligible to sign additional contracts with EDU II after further negotiations".

The contract with KHNP for new nuclear capacity at the Dukovany site was signed on 4 June. The aim is to start construction in 2029.

The Czech Republic currently gets about one-third of its electricity from the four VVER-440 units at Dukovany, which began operating between 1985 and 1987, and the two VVER-1000 units in operation at Temelín, which came into operation in 2000 and 2002.