Found during test run
Leak in Slovakia’s Mochovce nuclear power plant
12/07/2022 12:42 am
The third reactor block of Slovakia’s Mochovce nuclear power plant is scheduled to go online in mid-January. A leak is discovered when the load tests are carried out. The schedule is not in danger because of the necessary repairs, the operator reports.
A defective seal was discovered during load tests in the new third block of the Slovakian nuclear power plant Mochovce. The gradual commissioning of the reactor, which has been ongoing since September, was therefore interrupted, as the operating company announced. The leak in one part of the reactor was noticed during pressure tests, a spokeswoman said. Once the seal has been repaired, testing will continue next week.
The Mochovce 3 reactor block, which was only completed this year after years of delay, was filled with fuel rods for the first time in September. A first nuclear fission was initiated on October 23. The reactor is scheduled to go online in mid-January. In view of the already long start-up phase, the operating company does not expect major further delays due to the necessary repairs.
The first steps towards the construction of the third reactor were already taken in 1987, but actual further construction did not resume until 2008. Most recently, objections from the Austrian environmental protection organization Global 2000 had delayed the final operating permit.
The main reason for the long delay, however, was the economic and legal problems of the operating company. Since the sale of the majority stake to the Italian energy group Enel, the originally state-owned company SE has repeatedly been shaken by suspicions of fraud and corruption, in which the construction of nuclear power plants played a central role.
The Mochovce nuclear power plant is located around 100 kilometers east of the Slovakian capital Bratislava and 150 kilometers east of Vienna. In addition to the first two units at Mochovce, which have been in operation for around 20 years, Slovakia also operates two nuclear reactors at the Jaslovske Bohunice site.