Russian Atommash to ship reactor vessel to Belarusian nuclear power plant on 14 October

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

The reactor vessel successfully went through hydraulic testing in late September. 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.

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.

Apart from that, a monument to the nuclear industry’s first nuclear reactor will be unveiled in Volgodonsk on 14 October.

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.