Babylon of the nations. An engineer from Bílovice recalls the construction of the Finnish nuclear power plant
This year, the Czechia launched a tender for the construction of the fifth nuclear unit in Dukov. The Finnish Olkiluoto-3 is finally to be put into commercial operation at the end of the year after a number of delays. The reactor is one of the most modern in the world. Since 2007, it is the first newly launched in Europe. With a giant output of 1600 megawatts. “This brings it close to the original performance of all four reactors in Dukovany combined,” states the forty-two-year-old Maláč.
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However, electricity began to flow into the network only after more than fifteen years since the start of the mega-construction, which is part of one of the two nuclear power plants there. “As far as I know, the delays already started during the construction of the concrete foundations. They actually started over twice. You won’t catch up. You can’t hurry even the preparation for the launch itself, first cold tests, then hot tests. This takes several years. The introduction of nuclear fuel is a turning point, when a building becomes a nuclear facility,” he describes.
50 nationalities in the land of lakes, forests and snow
Maláč worked for a German company that prepared pressure tests of individual circuits of the turbine part of the power plant and inspected the installation. “A friend approached me then. I wanted to go abroad and I didn’t mind Finland, even though probably not many engineers flocked to the cold north of the city of Rauma,” he laughs. The planned one-year tour turned into two and a half years in the land of lakes, forests and snow.
He remembers creating international communities and friendships as one of the best things. “People from all over the world gathered there, even from South American Venezuela. At one time, up to five thousand people, perhaps fifty nationalities, worked there. English was spoken, even the toilet cleaner in Finland has no problem with that,” he says.
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In the vicinity of Olkiluoto, new concrete plants, towns for technicians and workers and even shipyards were created just for the purpose of the construction site, where the amount of necessary material flowed. “Furthermore, various services and companies are being added to it. Salaries are above average on such construction sites, employees can afford to spend money. This is related to the development of the surrounding area, for example the nearby town of Rauma, where I lived, or Pori,” says Maláč.
A bunch of documents for the tube
Security around the growing block increases the closer the builder’s work gets to the core. The reactor and turbine parts have separate steam systems.
“In a nuclear island, every screw and weld is extremely guarded. But even on our turbine island, we had countless tests and checks. There is a bunch of documents for every tube. In parts, every weld must be confirmed by X-ray for cracks. Our group alone was responsible for over twenty thousand of them. Everyone has their own brand of welder. Sufficient quality welders and pipe fitters for the construction of a nuclear power plant is the basis,” suggested the project engineer. With his two-meter height, he was able to weave between the pipes, but the helmet helped him from injury…
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Before he could even start working on the Finnish construction site, he was knocked out. “They even gave us a mandatory drug test. When entering the construction site, we passed two checkpoints, first for cars heading to the site, often in convoys, and then for individuals. Even with a random alcohol test, which is definitely not prohibited in Finland,” Maláč, currently working in the Czech Republic, describes with relief.
Coffee and puuro vs. wine
He was surprised that the inhabitants of the sauna powerhouse drink hectoliters of coffee. Perhaps since childhood. As he says, when the legal break was about to start, the Finns put down their tools and enjoyed at least one pot of coffee for fifteen minutes. but they also “eat” on milk and the traditional local porridge, called puuro. “They even drank beef steak with milk. Although there were large canteens on the construction site as part of the complex, I found the food so bland, we often cooked ourselves,” he says.
And a traditional Finnish sauna in your free time? “It was funny that the first question after coming to visit someone was not What would you like to drink? Was it “Are you going to take a sauna?” he recalls. Maláč long ago exchanged this relaxation for something more active – farming in the wine cellar. As a South Moravian patriot and a native of Velké Bílovice, the largest wine-growing village in the Czech Republic, he has his hands full with the grape harvest in the coming weeks.