On the border with Upper Austria

Temelín: Vibrations trigger fourth incident

The beautiful light mood is deceptive: the nuclear power plant in Temelín is prone to faults, and there have already been four incidents this year.

(Bild: Nadezda Murmakova/stock.adobe.com)

Concern about the Czech nuclear reactor on the border with Upper Austria is growing because experts fear many more incidents. The fourth incident has now occurred this year. 

Incident number four this year at the nuclear power plant in Temelin, not far from Upper Austria - and this time, too, it is a coincidence that the public learns about it: Two weeks ago, a block of the nuclear reactor had to be shut down because vibrations had been detected in a turbine.

"Further disruptions to be expected"
"Turbine problems have always been the reason for shutdowns in Temelín; the reactor type is vulnerable due to its size alone," says Manfred Doppler from the anti-nuclear committee. The expert adds: "The rapid restart is an indication that the cause of the vibrations has not been eliminated and that further disruptions are to be expected from this side." However, Doppler and his committee colleague Gerold Wagner fear that there are also problems in other areas of the reactor following the series of incidents in the recent past.

Block 2 taken off the grid for several days
Officials announced on Friday that Unit 2 would be taken off the grid for several days. The reason for this is repair work on the turbine, says an employee of the operator ČEZ. However, there is growing concern among the population. "The fact is that the 100th incident was registered in 2007 in this mix of Western and Soviet or Russian technology. With a deployment rate of 76 percent for Block 2 and 63 percent for Block 1, we have anything but a success story ahead of us," says Gerold Wagner from the anti-nuclear committee.

He suspects that the change of fuel manufacturer (the contract with the Russian TWEL was terminated) "will not exactly reduce the susceptibility to faults".