On Sunday morning, operators at the Krško nuclear power plant manually halted its operations as a precaution due to difficulties caused by the high water levels of the Sava River, announced the Krško nuclear power plant in a public statement.
The operation of the nuclear power plant has been temporarily halted due to a large accumulation of leaves and other debris that reduce the effectiveness of the cooling system on the secondary side of the plant, despite the fact that the Sava cleaning facility was operating at full capacity.
The plant is absolutely safe. It is currently stabilized and in the process of repairing some items that were waiting for the shutdown to be addressed. This is a normal process during which, after the plant’s shutdown, we conduct equipment inspections and resolve minor deviations that have accumulated during the operational phase. We anticipate that we will be ready for a restart of the plant by noon or around noon tomorrow, said Predrag Širola, the technical director of the Krško nuclear power plant, to HTV.
He added that the shutdown of the nuclear power plant due to debris brought by the swollen Sava River is the second shutdown for this reason in the history of the Krško nuclear power plant. The first occurred during the autumn high water levels seven years ago. He noted that the shutdown of the nuclear power plant is unfavorable for the electricity systems of Slovenia and Croatia, but both countries have secured backup electricity suppliers for such unexpected outages of the nuclear plant.
