Petr Měšťan, Director of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant, said it was a modernisation of the monitoring system which had been used for ten years: "Thanks to the special sensors, we can monitor whether the vibration of the blades of the last impellers is within the required limits even during operation."
Bohdan Zronek, member of the ČEZ board of directors and director of the nuclear energy division, said: "Although Temelín is a relatively young power plant, new technologies are always emerging. And if it makes sense for us from the point of view of efficiency and safety, we use them to the maximum extent. This applies to turbine diagnostics and a number of other devices."
ČEZ says the sensors measure the rotation time of each blade, which is over a metre long - acceleration or delay in the passage of the blade then signals its vibration. The work, costing "tens of millions" of Czech Koruna (CZK10 million is USD474,000), is taking place during the current, planned shutdown of the unit.
Investment projects at Temelin - which has two VVER-1000 units which came into operation in 2000 and 2002 - will reach CZK3.8 billion (USD182 million) this year and include continued modernisation of the control system and completion of the switch to a longer fuel cycle, the company said in an announcement in January. The plan is for the plant's units to operate for 60 or more years.
The Czech Republic gets about one-third of its electricity from nuclear generation - it also has four VVER-440 units at Dukovany, which began operating between 1985 and 1987. A CZK407 billion (USD18.6 billion) contract was signed with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power last year for two of its APR1000 reactors near the existing Dukovany units. The aim is to start construction in 2029. There are also developing plans for small modular reactors in the country.
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