WANO experts: Czech nuke plant Temelín working well

Temelin, South Bohemia, March 1 (CTK) - Czech nuclear power plant Temelin is working well, experts from seven countries of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) who ended their five-day mission WANO Follow-up said Friday.

The experts said the plant did a good job on recommendations from the previous mission of November 2011. Some measures could be implemented faster, though, Temelin spokesman Marek Svitak told CTK referring to the WANO team.

"Inspections show that the power plant has been working well with our proposals," said the experts' head Jan Nano who is working in nuclear energy for 35 years.

"We haven't found an area to see that the plant's management had not reacted to our recommendations," he added.

The speed of implementing new measures could improve, however, according to the experts.

"We don't want to underrate things and so we proceed more carefully which sometimes may be at the expense of the speed," Temelin director Milos Stepanovsky has said.

"The experts confirmed that we've followed a good direction in fulfilling their recommendations," he added.

Unifying the system for calibration of measuring equipment may serve as an example in this respect.

During the week-long inspection, experts from Armenia, Hungary, Russia and Slovakia compared the status quo with the state in 2011 using the best world practice.

According to Stepanovsky, the missions primarily serve for exchange of information as a basis for continual improvement of the nuclear industry.

Ten areas were examined by the foreign experts at Temelin from Monday to Friday, among them operation, maintenance, radiation and fire protection.

The official report will be available within two months.

Foreign missions will be held more frequently all over the world. It is one of measures taken by WANO in response to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in 2011.

Temelin will see another foreign mission next year.

WANO is an international organisation whose establishment was a response by the nuclear community and industry to the accident in Chernobyl in Russia in 1986.