Nuclear plant of Temelín

The Nuclear plant of Temelin , operated by ČEZ, is located near the village Temelin in Bohemia of the South in Czech Republic, to only 50 km of the Austrian border and 60 km of the German border. It is made up of two engines and four cooling towers a 150 meters height. The site, of a surface of approximately 1,45 km ², employs approximately 1000 people.

The building work of Temelin started in 1987. After the Revolution of velvet in 1989, a decision was made to build only two engines and not four as envisaged it the preliminary draft. Providing a unit power of 930 and 780 megawatts, these engines of Russian design are of type VVER 1000 /320, with pressurized water. In the years 1990, the Westinghouse american company modernized their security systems to reach the level of the Western standards of nuclear safety.

The startup of the engines occurred in June 2002 and April 2003. The power station was the object of strong criticisms in Tchéquie but also especially in Austria, because, according to them, it would present a main risk for the area. According to the ecological organizations, as well Czech as Austrian, the engines are prototypes which were not tested long enough.

So many ecological actions appeared in the area. The organizations claims the permanent closure of the power station. However, the launching of the power station was not accompanied by the main issues compared to the other power stations in Europe and in the world.

Incidents