NE Krško receives an environmental license to extend its life span
The Slovenian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning issued a permit to extend the working life of the Krško NPP until 2043. The Krško plant is co-owned by the Croatian Hrvatske elektroprivreda (HEP) and the Slovenian GEN Energija. NE Krško, located in Slovenia near the border with Croatia, produces about 40% of Slovenian electricity production. The Westinghouse pressurized water reactor of 696 MWe, which is about a hundred kilometers from the Austrian border, is the only Slovenian nuclear power plant.
The Krško power plant, which was put into operation in 1983, produces an average of 5.6 TWh of electricity per year, equally divided between Croatia and Slovenia. The power plant annually covers about 20% of Slovenian and about 16% of Croatian electricity needs.
HEP announced that the decision “has strategic importance, both for the Croatian Electric Power Industry, as a 50 percent co-owner of NEK, and for the entire Croatian energy industry, from the economic, energy and environmental aspects, especially in the circumstances of the current energy crisis.”
The process of obtaining environmental approval was long and very complex. The request was submitted to the ministry in October 2021. Several scientific institutions from Croatia and Slovenia participated in the preparation of documentation, analysis and expert assessments, as well as the preparation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA). The Minister of Environmental Protection, Uroš Brežan, said in a statement that the permit also talks about resistance to climate change and external factors, as well as the issue of watercourse warming. Since the plant is located in an earthquake zone, emphasis is also placed on earthquake safety.
The final permit had 300 pages. About 50 experts participated in the environmental impact assessment, and the action plan that will result from it will be completed by the middle of 2023, said Stanislav Rozman, president of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NEK) operator’s board. An international working group that includes about 30 countries on the basis of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context created instructions for carrying out EIA.
A cross-border environmental impact assessment was also carried out with the neighboring countries of Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Austria and Germany, and the delegations of Italy and Austria additionally visited the plant, the Government announced. In July 2021, the Ministry of Infrastructure issued an energy permit for the construction of a second reactor block in Krško, but Austria opposed that decision. Slovenia is preparing for a referendum on this issue.
Infrastructure Minister Bojan Kumer said in a press release that the use of nuclear energy, given the current energy crisis, “is an important topic for future generations of our country, which is why we in the current government have undertaken to thoroughly examine it. , respecting the opinion of citizens”.
Rozman said that the power plant will not need a physical technological upgrade, and NEK expects to complete the installation of the dry storage facility for used nuclear fuel by the middle of this year. This will fulfill all the conditions and all the decisions of the competent authorities for the extension of the operation of the power plant. After the upgrade, the power plant will meet the criteria defined by the EU taxonomy for the long-term operation of NEK. This year, the third periodical safety inspection of the power plant will be completed, in which the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Authority will check whether it can operate safely for the next ten years.
In November, NEK completed the planned maintenance of the power plant, which included the replacement of 56 out of 121 fuel elements and an extensive standard program of maintenance and checks of mechanical, electrical and instrumentation equipment. The power plant was originally designed to operate until 2023, but in 2016, GEN Energija and HEP decided to extend its life by 20 years until 2043, with the condition that it be subjected to a safety inspection every 10 years.
Image: Slovenska NE Krško (courtesy of www.zastita.info)