Conducting a flooding study for Jaslovske Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in Slovakia

We helped Jaslovske Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant ensure it has adequate flood prevention measures in place in the event of extreme rainfall.

The tsunami that severely damaged Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant on 11 March 2011 highlighted the global concern for ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants. After the tsunami, crisis managers in the nuclear energy sector started to prepare and upgrade risk studies, taking all possible sources of risk into account.

Industrial complexes can flood even if they are not located near rivers or the coast. In the area surrounding the Jaslovske Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in western Slovakia, there are no rivers or major watercourses. However, surface water generated by extreme rainfall could cause flooding. To enable them to adopt adequate preventive protection measures, authorities at the Jaslovske Bohunice asked us to prepare a complex flood risks study.

Utilising our knowledge and experience using numerical modelling to obtain relevant information about possible threats to critical infrastructure, we:

• defined the maximum possible extreme rainfall for the area, in cooperation with Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute
• set up a detailed two-dimensional (2D) model of the nuclear power plant and its surrounding area
• used MIKE 21 FM (a part of our MIKE by DHI software) to calculate the concentration of surface water, flooding paths and water movement in the 2D model during extreme, direct rainfall
• simulated 2D pluvial flooding scenarios
• prepared detailed flood maps showing the extent of flooding, water surface elevation, water depth and flow velocities
• evaluated flooding hazards for critical infrastructure
• formulated recommendations for mitigating flooding based on the results of the model

Slovenské elektrárne and the Jaslovske Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant will use the results of our study for contingency planning, risk management and preventive measures.