Modernisation

Technological Upgrades

Continuous technological upgrades result in the achievement of high operation and safety standards.

Constant modernisation and technological upgrades of the plant observe the following:

operating experience at home and around the world,
technological development, and
administrative requirements.

Modernisation plan is based on the objective assessment of the situation in terms of safety and stability of the plant’s operation and also considers the economic aspects.

Modernisation is based on the following:

strategic operational guidelines of the Krško NPP,
recommendations of the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration,
recommendations of technology provider,
recommendations of equipment providers, and
operating experience at home and around the world.

Most important modernisations include:

replacement of steam generators,
adjustment of the equipment for the plant's power uprate with safety analyses, and
construction of the full-scope simulator for the training of the shift crews.

Other modernisations include:

upgrade of process information system,
upgrade of security and monitoring of the power plant,
increasing the capacity of the nuclear Spent Fuel Pool,
replacement of both low-pressure turbines and the stator and rotor of the main electric generator, several heaters and heat exchangers, and all the transformers,
protection of the plant from extreme flooding,
reactor vessel head replacement,
reconstruction of the 400-kV switchyard,
construction of an additional, i.e. third diesel generator.

Annually, 20 to 30 new solutions are installed, whereby a few dozen million euros are invested each year. Investments are balanced in the areas of operational safety and long‑term availability.

Maximum power: 730 MW

Rated power of generator: 850 MW

Rated voltage of generator: 21 kV

Generator current at full power: 20 kA

Turbine rotation speed: 1500 rpm

Digitalisation

Digitalisation directs the development of society in all fields, the nuclear industry being no exception. In accordance with the digitalisation strategy, NEK has introduced several IT and other modernisations in technological and business fields.

The digitalisation plan is based on an objective assessment of needs, benefits, and economic efficiency in view of safe and reliable long-term plant operations. The strategy covers small, concrete steps, which we try to adjust and connect into an efficient process-business information system which will support operations, maintenance, technological upgrading, and day-to-day business in NEK. Our special concern is safety.

In recent years, there have been the following areas already digitalised in NEK:

turbine generator control,
main and emergency control room alarm system,
majority of secondary and tertiary system management,
central process information system.

A major part of the business processes has also been digitalised:

business information system (ERP),
walkdowns and configuration management (eSOMS),
Corrective Action Program for deviation and improvement management,
work orders management.

As early as 2000, we installed a full-scope simulator which represents a copy of the main control room. An integral part of the full-scope simulator is a digitalised model of major systems of the entire plant. The computer part of the simulator was upgraded in 2017 and allows contemporary methods and wider scale of choices in staff training process by the use of a 3D visualisation.