First fuel load at new reactor could be this year
Hot functional testing has begun at Slovakia’s Mochovce-4 nuclear power plant in southwest of the country, owner and operator Slovenské Elektrárne said.
Hot testing typically spans several weeks and involves a series of tests on key systems to verify their performance under standard operating conditions, conducted without loading any nuclear fuel into the reactor core.
“With the hot hydro test, we are in the next stage of the inactive testing programme,” said Branislav Strýček, president and chief executive Slovenské Elektrárne.
He said first fuel loading for the VVER-440 pressurised water reactor (PWR) plant is expected to happen this year, but subject to a series of testing.
Work began in 1987 on two additional VVER-440 reactors at the Mochovce site near Nitra in southwest Slovakia – Mochovce-3 and -4. However, in progress was halted in 1991 due to a lack of funds and did not resume until November 2008.
Mochovce-3 reached first criticality in October 2022 and completed commissioning a year later.
For Mochovce-4, Slovenské Elektrárne has said that 90% of all systems had been turned over to commissioning in 2023.
The Slovak utility said both Unit 3 and Unit 4 at Mochovce have installed capacity of 471 MW and will cover approximately 26% of electricity demand in Slovakia.
The country’s five nuclear reactors units at two sites – Mochovce and Bohunice – generated about 60% of electric power in 2023, according to data by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This places Slovakia second after France in terms of the share of nuclear power in the electricity mix.
