Reactor vessel in transit to Belarusian nuclear power plant

The Volgodonsk-based branch Atommash of the Russian company AEM Technologies sent the reactor vessel for the first power-generating unit on the way to the Belarusian nuclear power plant on 14 October, BelTA has learned.

Combined means of transportation are used to deliver the piece of equipment to the nuclear power plant. Heavy trucks will transport it to the Tsimlyansk water reservoir first. From there the vessel will be shipped by river to Veliky Novgorod. After that a specialized transporter will be used to deliver the reactor vessel by rail to Ostrovets.

Atommash is now busy making equipment for reactor compartments of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, the Rostov nuclear power plant, and the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Soon the enterprise will begin making equipment for the nuclear island of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant (Turkey) and the Kudankulam nuclear power plant (India).

The reactor vessel for the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant weighs over 330 tonnes. It is 13 meters high, with the diameter as large as 4.5 meters.

The reactor is a vertical cylinder with an elliptical bottom. The reactor core and the internal components will be located inside. The vessel's walls are 200-400mm thick. The reactor is hermetically sealed by a lid that also bears the actuators and mechanisms meant to regulate the process and protect the reactor. The lid also contains pipe sleeves that will be used to feed cables from internal reactor control sensors.

On the whole, AEM Technologies will make over 50 kinds of equipment for the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The list includes core catchers, reactor units, the upper unit, sets of steam generators, main circulation lines, main circulating pumps and other products. A total of over 4,000 tonnes of equipment will be made and shipped in 2013-2017.

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.

AEM Technologies was established in 2007. It is part of Atomenergomash, the mechanical engineering division of the Russian nuclear industry corporation Rosatom. AEM Technologies has an engineering division in Saint Petersburg and two manufacturing divisions: Petrozavodskmash in Petrozavodsk and Atommash in Volgodonsk.