Slovenia's nuclear plant restarts after maintenance

Slovenia's only nuclear power plant Krsko (NEK) restarted operations on Sunday after closing on April 14 for regular maintenance, NEK said on Sunday. It said in a statement maintenance took a few days longer than the 40 days planned due to more work on the replacement of the head of the reactor's container than expected. A stop sign is seen near a nuclear power plant in Krsko about 70 km east of capital Ljubljana June 16, 2011. "During the maintenance all the work that was planned was completed...including the replacement of the rotor of the main electric generator," said NEK, which performs regular maintenance every 18 months. NEK, which is jointly owned by euro zone member Slovenia and its neighbour Croatia, was built in cooperation with Westinghouse Electric Corporation and started operating in 1982. It is scheduled to close down in 2023 but the Slovenian government plans to prolong its lifespan by 20 years. In March 2011, NEK was shut down for safety reasons after an unexpected break in the power link to Zagreb. The incident had no impact on the environment.