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Krško nuclear plant rejoins grid

Thursday, 31 December 2020

The Krško nuclear power plant has been reconnected to the grid, owner and operator Nuklearna Elektrarna Krško said today. Slovenia's sole nuclear reactor had been shut down as a precaution after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the town of Petrinja, which is 50 km south-east of the Croatian capital of Zagreb on 29 December. The plant is located in Slovenia at a site about 80 km north-west of Petrinja.

Krško nuclear plant rejoins grid — Krško (Image: NEK)

"After systematic inspection and testing of systems and equipment, which confirmed that Tuesday's earthquake did not affect the power plant, the Krško Nuclear Power Plant was reconnected last night to the electricity system," NEK said. "In accordance with procedures, we are gradually increasing the power of the plant, which is expected to regain full capacity in the afternoon."

NEK also said that, this year it has "already produced more than 6 terawatt hours of electricity and supplied more electricity to our shareholders than planned".

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said yesterday it had been informed by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) that reactor start-up procedures had been initiated at the Krško plant, and that the plant was scheduled to resume connection to the grid at 21:00 UTC last night.

SNSA informed the IAEA that Krško’s safety systems had operated as expected, and that detailed inspections yesterday had shown no damage to the power plant’s systems and equipment by the earthquake.