Company Profile
For 50 years now, the ŠKODA JS company has been active in engineering and supplies for the nuclear energy industry. At present the staff of the company has nearly 1000 employees. Two-thirds of these are technicians and administrative workers (designers, manufacturing and calculating engineers, laboratory and testing workers, salesmen, and economic staff); the remaining one-third represents workers. In 2004 a new owner took over the company - a Russian mechanical-engineering group OMZ, which guarantees the perspective and development of nuclear energy programmes within the company.
"Refurbishment of the Control System on the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant" is among our main current projects in the field of Investment Engineering. By its several billion CZK value, this project is the largest Czech nuclear project of the current decade. ŠKODA JS, as the General Contractor, coordinates planned outages and gradual replacement of the outdated control system with a new one by 2015.
In June 2009 a contract for completion of the nuclear island of Unit 3 and 4 at Mochovce NPP was signed between ŠKODA JS and Slovenské elektrárne. ŠKODA JS is one of the five main contractors for this project. Subject of the supply are a.o. systems of primary circuit, fuel-handling, internal connecting piping and intermediate cooling systems.
Another important programme is the manufacture of control rod drive mechanisms (CRDM) for regulating the power output of VVER-type nuclear reactors. ŠKODA JS supplies these drives, and also corresponding modern control system, mainly to the large Ukrainian market; but the same type of equipment is also necessary for Czech, Slovak and Hungarian nuclear power stations. Production of components for pressurized and boiling reactors of the PWR and BWR-type is equally important.
The third group of products, which represents a substantial part of the company's revenues, is the manufacture of casks for the transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel. ŠKODA JS, in cooperation with its German partner, supplies such casks to the Czech power utility ČEZ and also to markets in Western Europe and Lithuania. More than 300 containers have been produced to this date.
A characteristic feature of our activities is the growing proportion of new contracts in the maintenance of nuclear power stations, whose equipment must be regularly checked and, depending on the time of operation, modernized. ŠKODA JS has concluded a long term contract with the operator of Czech nuclear power plants, ČEZ, a.s., for service of the reactor buildings of all Temelín and Dukovany NPP units. Our attention is focused on the market of VVER reactors in Eastern Europe.
ŠKODA JS Company's strategic plans are based on a good knowledge of the market, which needs the renewal of its nuclear capacity. After a temporary reduction in the 1990s, both Europe and the American continent will, step by step, come back to nuclear energy. Despite the difficult period at the end of the 20th century, which was rather unfavorable for nuclear energy, our company's engineering and production potential has been preserved. ŠKODA JS is able to compete for new investment projects and equipment supplies.