The
supervisory board of the Krsko nuclear power plant (NPP), jointly owned by
Slovenia and its neighbour Croatia, has endorsed a study that found it would be
feasible to extend its lifespan until 2043, Croatian state-owned power utility
HEP said.
The NPP, launched in 1982, is designed to operate until 2023.
The plant is a 2-loop Westinghouse pressurised water reactor, with a rated
thermal capacity of 1,994 thermal megawatts and 696
megawatts-electric.
The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, has
confirmed the option of extending the lifespan of the plant offers better
pay-off than investing in replacement capacity - be it coal-, gas-, hydro- or
nuclear-powered, or buying electricity at market prices, HEP said in the
November/December issue of its in-house newsletter.
The board, made up of
three Croatian and as many Slovenian members, has also approved a long-term
investment plan that features eight nuclear safety projects worth a combined 218
million euro ($257 million). The projects are a key precondition set by the
Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration for extending the lifespan of the
existing NPP.
Krsko, Slovenia's sole NPP, was built near the border with
Croatia at a time when the two countries were still part of former Yugoslavia.
The two neighbours share the power plant's output which topped a record 6.0
billion kilowatt-hours in 2014.