Slovenia's Krsko NPP shuts down for routine maintenance

The outage, set to last until May 1, will involve the replacement of 53 fuel elements, along with preventive inspections, maintenance tasks, and surveillance tests, the operator said in a statement last week.

The power plant holds regular maintenance works every 18 months. The plant delivered 7.74 million MWh of electricity to the grid over the 18-month fuel cycle, 8% lower than planned, due to an extraordinary shutdown on October 5, after leakage was detected in the primary system within the containment structure.

"Since this will be the first regular outage in the extended operational life of the power plant, it will be essential to check the impact of aging on components, systems, and structures, along with fuel change, standard surveillance, maintenance, and updating of equipment," NEK said.

In January, Slovenia's environment ministry said it has issued a permit for extending the lifespan of Krsko nuclear power plant to 2043.

NEK employees will oversee and manage all outage works which will be carried out by more than 1,000 employees of contractors from Slovenia and Croatia, the plant operator noted.

Krsko NPP, located in Slovenia near the border with Croatia, generates electricity that covers about 20% of the demand in Slovenia and 16% in Croatia. The NPP is located around 100 kilometers from Austria and operates a Westinghouse pressurised light water reactor of 2,000 MW thermal power capacity. NEK is co-owned by Slovenia's Gen-Energija and Croatian power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda.