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Decommissioning of NPP V1

DECOMMISSIONING OF THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT V1

Operation and decommissioning of the nuclear power plant V1 in short

The nuclear power plant V1 was the first VVER-type nuclear power plant in former Czechoslovakia. Units 1 and 2, each with electric power of 440 MW, were in operation from 1978/1979 to 2006/2008.

Within the EU accession negotiations with the Slovak Republic, the Government of the SR made a commitment to definitely shut down both units of the nuclear power plant V1 as of December 2008. Their decommissioning has been ongoing since 2011 after issuing the decommissioning licence in two stages with the deadline in 2025.

Planned end state after the termination of the second stage describes a site, in which all radioactive waste will be treated and removed as well as all buildings will be demolished to the bottom of the construction pit. Subsequently, a detailed inspection of the site and backfilling of the construction pits will follow. Afterwards, the locality will be environmentally restored, released from the Atomic Act provisions and accessible for its unlimited (non-nuclear) industrial use.

The most challenging activities of decommissioning regarding time and finance are dismantling of technological equipment of the reactor and its cooling circuit as well as other systems in the controlled area, decontamination and demolition of the reactor building and supporting facilities, and also management of material from decommissioning. This includes monitoring and releasing of materials meeting the limit values related to the environment and also complex management of radioactive waste including the final disposal in the repository.

DECOMMISSIONING COSTS OF THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT V1 AND WAY OF THEIR COVERAGE

The decommissioning costs of the nuclear power plant V1 are reimbursed from resources collected for purposes of decommissioning during its operation period from 1995 to 2008. However, this does not cover total costs. Thus partial financing from the levies intended for the coverage of the historical debt is needed, as it is in the case of the coverage of the decommissioning costs of the nuclear power plant A1. A significant portion of the costs for the nuclear power plant V1 decommissioning is reimbursed from EU resources through the Bohunice International Decommissioning Support Fund (BIDSF) as mitigation of economic impacts caused by its early shut down. Decommissioning of this power plant is being executed through partial projects, while financial resources provided by EU are used in the form of grant agreements for implementation of individual projects.

Part of the costs is also reimbursed by the National Nuclear Fund, which creates dedicated sub-accounts and analytical accounts from its resources. Financial resources intended for decommissioning of the nuclear power plant V1 and management of radioactive waste from this decommissioning (with the exception of the disposal of radioactive waste) are accumulated in the analytical sub-account of the nuclear power plant V1. Financial resources for activities connected with the disposal of low-activity and very low-level radioactive waste from decommissioning are provided from the sub-account e) analytical account “the National Radioactive Waste Repository in the locality of Mochovce”. Costs for the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear power plant V1 are reimbursed from the sub-account g), which was created for this purpose. Resources in these sub-accounts or analytical accounts are then provided the company JAVYS, a. s., which is responsible for the whole process of decommissioning, management of radioactive waste from this decommissioning and storage of spent nuclear fuel. The total amount of financial resources spent from the National Nuclear Fund for the coverage of costs in the analytical account of the nuclear power plant V1 from 1997 until the end of 2018 is € 101.3 million. This sum includes financial resources spent for management, repairs and maintenance of facilities of the nuclear power plant V1, management of the radioactive waste from decommissioning (with the exception of the disposal of radioactive waste provided from the sub-account e)), management of decommissioning projects and partial co-financing of own decommissioning projects along with EU resources. Financial resources spent for the storage of spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear power plant V1 and related investment actions are described in detail in the section storage of spent nuclear fuel.

The total forecasted amount of costs for decommissioning of the nuclear power plant V1, excluding the spent nuclear fuel costs, is € 1 239 million.