Coolant collectors for Belarusian nuclear power plant by year end

MINSK, 10 August (BelTA) – The Russian company Petrozavodskmash has started making coolant collectors for the Belarusian nuclear power plant, the company’s press service told BelTA.

The Petrozavodsk-based enterprise Petrozavodskmash is a branch of AEM Technologies, which is part of Atomenergomash, the mechanical engineering division of the Russian nuclear industry corporation Rosatom.

Petrozavodskmash is now busy making a batch of 18 coolant collectors. Each of the two power-generating units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will need eight coolant collectors. The first one is nearly ready. The entire batch will be ready by the end of the year.

As part of the manufacturing process the forged blank is machined. The internal surface gets two layers of anticorrosive plating. Parts of the collector are welded by robots. Then the product is subjected to heat treatment and final machining. The press service pointed out that every step of the process is closely overseen, including visual control, measurements, dye-penetrant inspection, and ultrasound inspection.

The coolant collector is part of the steam generator. It is classified as first safety class equipment. The coolant collector is a cylinder with thick walls. It has varying diameter and thickness. The collector is used to enable heat transfer between the first cooling circuit of the reactor unit and the second one. It also removes heat from the reactor core.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.