Dukovany suspends third unit from grid due to leak

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Dukovany, Jan 20 (CTK) - Staff at Czech nuclear power station Dukovany yesterday unhooked the plant's third production unit from the grid owing to a leak in the secondary circuit.

Technicians found out that tens of litres of non-radioactive water per hour were leaking from one of the pipelines in the secondary circuit.

Dukovany spokesman Petr Spilka told CTK that no radiation leaked from the plant and that the safety of operation or the plant's staff were not jeopardised. Repair of the defect will last for around a week.

The closure was the second unplanned shutdown of a production unit in Dukovany this year. On January 7, the reactor of unit number four was closed for around 12 hours owing to a human error.

After the repair, the third unit should start to operate at full output on January 26.

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