Bohunice Nuclear Power Plants
Encyclopedia
The Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is a complex of nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...

s situated 2.5 km from the village of Jaslovské Bohunice
Jaslovské Bohunice
Jaslovské Bohunice is a small village in Slovakia in the Trnava District. It is best known for the nearby Bohunice Nuclear Power Plants complex....

 in the Trnava District
Trnava District
Trnava District is adistrict in the Trnava Region of western Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian countyof Pozsony, apart from Bučany in the east which formed part of Nyitra County.-Municipalities:*Biely Kostol*Bíňovce...

 in western Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

.

Bohunice NPP comprises two plants: V-1 and V-2. Both plants contain two reactor units. The plant was connected to the national power network in stages in the period between 1978 and 1985. The four power reactors are pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...

s of the Soviet VVER-440 design.

Annual electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 generation averages about 12,000 GWh.
Upon development of a district heating
District heating
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...

 supply network in the town of Trnava
Trnava
Trnava is a city in western Slovakia, 47 km to the north-east of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a kraj and of an okres . It was the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric . The city has a historic center...

 near Bohunice NPP, V-2 switched to co-generation. Part of this system is a heat feeder line commissioned in 1987. In 1997 a heat feeder line to Leopoldov
Leopoldov
Leopoldov is a town in the Trnava Region of Slovakia, near the Váh river. It has a population of 4,083. The city is the location of Leopoldov Prison a high-security correctional institution.-History:...

 and Hlohovec was begun, branching off from the Trnava line.

The A-1 is another nuclear reactor situated on the Jaslovské Bohunice site. On February 22 1977 the A-1 reactor
KS 150
KS 150 is a heavy water Gas Cooled Reactor nuclear reactor design. A single example, A-1, was constructed at the Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia. The power plant suffered a series of accidents, the worst being an accident on February 22, 1977 rated INES-4...

 suffered a major accident during refueling, rated INES
International Nuclear Event Scale
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to enable prompt communication of safety significance information in case of nuclear accidents....

-4. This reactor is currently undergoing a decommissioning
Nuclear decommissioning
Nuclear decommissioning is the dismantling of a nuclear power plant and decontamination of the site to a state no longer requiring protection from radiation for the general public...

 and cleanup process.

V-1 Shutdown

As a condition of accession into the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 (2004) Slovakia was forced to deactivate the two reactors at the V-1 plant. A provision in the accession treaty allowed for reactivation in case of an emergency.

V-1 plant was exempted from Slovenske Eletrarne sale to Enel
Enel
Enel may refer to:*Enel SpA, an Italian electricity company*Enel , a fictional villain in the One Piece manga and anime series*Enel, meaning third in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, cf. Awakening of the Elves...

 and trasferred to JAVYS, a national nuclear decommisioning company fully owned by the state.
The first reactor was shut down at the end of 2006, the second on the last day of 2008.

The Russia-Ukraine gas dispute in January 2009 disrupted natural gas supplies and electricity generation. On January 10 2009 the Slovak government ordered the second reactor, then still undergoing a shutdown procedure, to be returned into power-generation-capable mode. Eventually, the reactor was not reconnected to the grid and the final shutdown was resumed.

New Build

In May 2009 Czech PM Jan Fischer
Jan Fischer (politician)
Jan Fischer was Prime Minister of the caretaker government of Czech Republic in 2009−2010. A lifelong statistician, he was previously the president of the Czech Statistical Office since April 2003.- Personal life and education :...

 and Slovak PM Robert Fico
Robert Fico
Robert Fico served as the Prime Minister of Slovakia from July 4, 2006 to July 8, 2010.He is the leader of the left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy . The party won the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the cast votes...

 announced construction of a new reactor unit at Bohunice. A partnership of Czech energy company ČEZ
CEZ
CEZ stands for:* one of Falconbridge Ltd.'s refineries* a Czech news channel* IATA airport code for Cortez Municipal Airport* CEZ Group, a Czech energy company...

 and the Slovak Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) will build the plant, worth around 100 billion Koruna or 3.7 billion Euros.
The new reactor has not been settled upon but will be rated at between 600 and 1,600 MWe. Four manufacturers have been mooted as possible suppliers: Mitsubishi, Atomenergoprojekt, Westinghouse and Areva. ČEZ is considering combining this project with their concurrent construction of the third and fourth reactors at Temelín Nuclear Power Station
Temelín Nuclear Power Station
Temelín Nuclear Power Station is located near Temelín, a small village in the Czech Republic. Temelín NPP is owned by ČEZ Group, which employs 1000 workers at this site. The adjacent castle Vysoký Hrádek serves as an information centre.-History:...

. Such a contract would be worth between 7 and 10 billion Euros.

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