Bohunice :	|	Operating History	|	Technical Activities	|	Accomplishments	|

Bohunice Operating History

The SE, together with the Czech utility CEZ, bought some 400 unused fuel assemblies from the closed Greifswald plant in former East Germany. In the fall of 1992, 111 of the assemblies were shipped to the Bohunice plant.

In the past, spent fuel from the Bohunice plant was kept for 10 years in the 600-metric-ton interim storage facility at the plant site and then sent to the former Soviet Union for reprocessing. Until the breakup of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic, the Dukovany plant sent its spent fuel to Bohunice's interim storage facility. But in 1993, the Slovak utility SEP--now SE--said that it was no longer willing to accept Dukovany's spent fuel. In July 1995, SE began shipping Duokovany's spent fuel back to the Czech Republic plant, where an interim storage facility had been built and licensed.

During the summer of 1995, Bohunice plant management was attempting to renegotiate its agreement with Russia, and Russia was reportedly reviewing the agreement. According to the Slovak press, Russia's minister of atomic energy said during a December 1995 meeting with the Slovak Republic's economy minister that Russia would take back Bohunice's spent fuel in 1996. The interim storage facility at Bohunice will run out of capacity in 1997, and SE plans to build a long-term storage facility for spent fuel from the Bohunice and Mochovce plants. But Bohunice management has reportedly said that building its own permanent storage facility is not an option.

Source: Source Book: Soviet-Designed Nuclear Power Plants in Russia, Ukrane, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria, 5th edition. Nuclear Energy Institute. 1997. (online)

Bohunice :	|	Operating History	|	Technical Activities	|	Accomplishments	|