A glitch-plagued nuclear plant automatically shut down just 24 hours after the plant was plugged into the Czech Republic’s national power grid, officials said Wednesday.
The originally Soviet-designed Temelin plant, the subject of fierce protests by neighbouring Austria, was given approval on Monday to plug into the national grid for an 18-month trial period.
But late Tuesday, the plant’s number 1 reactor was shut down by its emergency system after it detected a fault with its generator, plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said.
He said operators were now correcting a problem with the system’s water-tightness after reducing the reactor’s power from 100 percent to three percent.
The Czech Office of Nuclear Safety (SUJB) gave the approval after a final 144-hour test of the number 1 reactor at Temelin, barely 60 km (35 miles) from the Austrian border in southern Bohemia.
State power company Ceske Energeticke Zavody (CEZ) took over ownership of the plant after completion of the final test at the plant, which has suffered repeated technical problems since first firing up in October 2000.
The plant, originally built in the 1980s but upgraded with Western security equipment by US giant Westinghouse, has fueled a fierce diplomatic row between Austria and the Czech Republic in the last two years.
Austria’s far-right has even threatened to veto the Czech Republic’s EU hopes over Temelin, although Conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has agreed to abide by accords with Prague on safety and environmental guarantees.
