Engineering

Engineering

The main engineering activities include project management, budgeting and cost management, design, calculations and analyses, planning, procurement of subcontracts and deliveries of complex units, supply chain management and coordination, assembly and test management, the commissioning of supplied equipment, staff training and customer support during the warranty period.

Business cases also often require project financing. The full scale of the aforementioned activities is performed in projects in which ŠKODA JS acts as the general contractor or in deliveries of complex investment projects. In case of other types of contracts, only the appropriate types of activities are performed depending on the content and scope of the project.

We are a strategic and experienced partner

As a traditional and experienced supplier of nuclear technologies, we want to further develop our expertise and capabilities in our domain, which is mainly VVER-type nuclear power plants, whose technology we have mastered and which we are able to further develop throughout the project lifecycle – from design, calculation and analytical activities to the realization phase, including its thorough and qualified preparation, all the way to the commissioning of the supplied equipment. We also apply this knowledge to large projects and export contracts, such as our previous deliveries to Ukraine – the system of emergency containment depressurization or the sealing of ionizing chamber channels.

We have a number of interesting and often unique projects under our belt

We maintain our technical readiness, among other things, through interesting smaller projects with unique technical characteristics, and we also evaluate their potential overreach from the nuclear power industry into the conventional power industry. One such example is the project of a solar loop verifying the possibility of converting solar energy into electricity using new media, a helium regeneration system, and a melting autoclave system – both with the potential to be used in the development of generation IV nuclear reactors, as well as the development of new ways of storing energy.

We have been behind a number of exceptional projects. In the area of engineering and deliveries of power plant safety and control systems, we implemented the project of the complete modernization of instrumentation and control systems at the Dukovany NPP. Between 2000 and 2018, during full operation of the power plant, we gradually replaced its entire safety, control and information system. This was done on schedule, within the set budget and using only regular maintenance and refueling outages, i.e., without requiring any long-term outage of the nuclear units. This achievement is exceptional on a global scale.

We carry out various investment projects for nuclear power plants such as pipeline replacement and reconstruction, seismic reinforcement, polar crane modernization, repair of steam generator nozzles, repair of heterogeneous welds on steam generators and on pipelines according to customer requirements.

Replacement of moisture separators-reheaters at the Temelín NPP

As part of the regular outage, a complex project to replace moisture separators-reheaters (MSR) with newer and more efficient equipment was implemented in two stages at the 1st and 2nd units of the Temelín nuclear power plant in 2020-21. ŠKODA JS designed the entire course of project implementation and developed detail design and assembly documentation. It also ensured the production of assembly tools and the management of all assembly works.

It was the largest transport to Temelín NPP since the power plant was put into operation more than twenty years ago. A total of four pieces of MSR shells, each weighing 114 t, 30 m long and 4.5 m high, were transported from the port in Bratislava. Work in the planned outage of the unit was completed in 40 days, in the second stage in 38 days. The actual implementation was carried out by a ninety-member ŠKODA JS team, consisting of coordinators, inspection technicians, welding supervisors and sixty assembly workers - experienced pipe fitters and welders.

Our current goal is the involvement of ŠKODA JS in the construction of new nuclear units in Europe and the surrounding areas. We will seek to participate in planned nuclear power plant projects in Poland, Bulgaria and the Ukraine, no matter whether they are traditional large power units or small modular reactors (SMRs), which have a great future ahead of them. We will certainly be involved in the construction of the new Czech nuclear units.

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