PRAGUE, May 5. /TASS/. The Dukovany nuclear power plant, located in the southeast of the Czech Republic, plans to stop using nuclear fuel from Russia, head of the plant Roman Havlin said as quoted by by the CTK news agency on Thursday.
"I can't imagine being dependent on just one [nuclear fuel] supplier. Negotiations [with alternative partners to replace the Russian supplier] are already underway. I can't give you details yet," Havlin said.
Currently, the reactors of the Dukovany NPP are provided with nuclear fuel for the next three years. "Next delivery from Russia, according to the current agreement, should be carried out this year," Havlin said.
Meanwhile, President of the State Office for Nuclear Safety, Dana Drabova, expects that the decision to transfer the Dukovany nuclear power plant to the use of nuclear fuel from alternative sources will be made in the coming months.
On April 13, Czech media reported that the Temelin nuclear power plant, the largest of the two nuclear power plants operating in the Czech Republic, will receive nuclear fuel for its reactors from the American company Westinghouse and France’s Framatome from 2024. The contract is designed for 15 years. Its cost is estimated at tens of millions of euros.
At the moment, the Temelin nuclear power plant located in the South Czech Republic, just like the Dukovany nuclear power plant, receives fuel from the TVEL company, which is part of the Russian nuclear state corporation Rosatom. The Czech Republic plans to stop using its services because of the situation in Ukraine. Czech nuclear power plants were built with the assistance of the USSR.