Slovenia’s NEK, operator of the Krško nuclear power station, has begun a process to repair a damaged pipeline of the safety injection system in the primary circuit after a leak led to a forced outage at the single-unit facility earlier this month.

NEK said all 121 fuel assemblies have been removed from the core of the 688-MW pressurised water reactor (PWR) unit at Krško to allow technology supplier Westinghouse to carry out an assessment and start work on replacing parts of the injection system pipelines.

The company said it had taken a “conservative” decision to replace parts of two pipelines – a main one and a spare one. 

To ensure the plant’s safety, its setup includes a second injection system pipeline which is to ensure the functioning of the primary in case of a loss of function for the main injection system pipeline.