Making of second reactor vessel for Belarusian nuclear power plant named important event of 2016

“Our ahead-of-schedule production of a reactor pressure vessel for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant was the most important event of the outgoing year,” BelTA learned from Igor Kotov, Director General of the Russian company AEM Technologies. “In July 2016 we set out to accomplish the difficult goal and we’ve managed to do it. Thanks to the introduction of Rosatom’s manufacturing system instruments — modern tools, technologies, parallel processes that used to be sequential — we’ve managed to greatly reduce the time required to make this most important and most exacting piece of hardware. For instance, we’ve set a record by managing to accomplish the controlled assembly of the reactor pressure vessel with in-vessel devices — one of the last few control operations before the product is shipped out — within only 20 days. The bundle of acceptance testing documents — quite a serious amount of work, too — was prepared on schedule as well. During quality checkups the product passed virtually all the control points on the first try. The implementation of Rosatom’s manufacturing practices to reduce the time required to make the reactor pressure vessel and a set of steam generators — they are still being made by the Volgodonsk-based Atommash branch of ours — has produced rather good results. The steam generators for the Belarusian nuclear power plant are also being made ahead of the schedule the contract specifies. Our Petrozavodsk branch has secured some nice accomplishments, too. The enterprise made and shipped out a set of main circulating pumps for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant way ahead of the schedule the contract specifies.

“Our specialists also won the Welding Operations award during the third national WorldSkills Hi-Tech 2016 championship. Dmitry Kucheryavin, a welder with the Volgodonsk branch, hit the highest score and became an absolute champion. Dmitry Kovalenko, an operator of computer-controlled machine tools with the Petrozavodsk branch, came third in the nomination ‘Lathework using computer-controlled machine tools’. Thus, our guys were victorious in the elimination round of the AtomSkills championship and confirmed their mastery during the national championship, too. The victories at such high-level events indicate that Rosatom’s enterprises and Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division in particular are on the right track. We pay a lot of attention to developing the skills of our blue-collar workers and to encouraging old-time workers to pass their best practices to new guys. It makes us confident that we will secure notable victories and achievements in 2017.”