6 Aug (NucNet): The Slovak government has approved an increase in the construction budget for the completion of the Mochovce-3 and -4 nuclear reactor units of 260 million euros (EUR) (344 million US dollars).
The funds were requested by the Italian company Enel, the majority shareholder of Slovak energy company Slovenské Elektrárne, which owns the Mochovce nuclear plant.
The Slovak Hospodarske Noviny newspaper said Enel had threatened to discontinue the project, which would lead to the loss of 10,000 jobs.
A spokesperson for Enel told NucNet that negotiations between the shareholders of Slovenské Elektrárne on a new strategic plan and agreement on a budget increase for Mochovce-3 and -4 are continuing. But the spokesperson said “urgent amendments” to contracts with suppliers for a total amount up to EUR 260 million were approved at an extraordinary shareholders meeting.
“This decision was taken to ensure the continuation of the most urgent completion of works of the project, avoiding significant damage for the company,” the Enel spokesperson said.
The new budget increase is part of a EUR 800 million rise in costs required to ensure the compliance of newly built nuclear power plants with the latest and most stringent international safety standards, Enel said. The company said the cost increases are covered by the company’s own resources with “no burden on the state budget”.
The total cost of construction of the two new units at Mochovce has now increased to EUR 3.25 billion and Enel has requested a further increase of EUR 540 million from the state. This would bring the total cost to EUR 3.8 billion.
Earlier this year, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said he would not allow any budget increases without guarantees that the reactors will be completed on time.
Mochovce-3 and -4 are both 440 megawatt pressurised water reactors of Russian VVER V-213 design. Enel said yesterday they are expected to become commercially operational in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Slovakia has four commercially operational nuclear units at two plants. They are Bohunice-3 and -4 (also known as Bohunice V2 or Trnava) and Mochovce-1 and -2.
Slovakia produced 53 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy in 2012.
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lubomir Mitev at lubomir.mitev@nucnet.org
