Business news

MINSK, 14 June (BelTA) – The Volgodonsk-based branch Atommash of the Russian company AEM Technologies (part of Atomenergomash, which is the mechanical engineering division of the Russian state corporation Rosatom) has sent on its way a set of PGV-1000 steam generators for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from the AEM Technologies website.

The four assembled steam generators were delivered by trucks to a special wharf on the bank of the Tsimlyansk water reservoir. In line with the traffic safety rules the cargo was transported across the city at night. It took four nights to deliver the set of four steam generators to the special wharf. From there the steam generators 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. The cargo will have to travel a total of 3,000km to reach the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site.

Atommash Director Rovshan Abbasov said: “While making the set of steam generators for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, we came up with an exemplary workflow based on the just-in-time principle. The placement of manufacturing equipment has been redesigned. Every piece of equipment is now located within easy reach. We are going to use the accumulated positive experience for implementing another project we have started — the production of steam generators for the Indian nuclear power plant Kudankulam.”

The project Rovshan Abbasov’s team has implemented to make the production of steam generators more effective has won Rosatom’s Person of the Year 2016 award. As part of the efforts to redesign the workflow in the Volgodonsk branch they ruled out excessive movement and traversal of technological operations at key machining and welding equipment. The defect rate of welded seams has been reduced as much as possible. The efforts have reduced the production of one set of steam generators by two months in comparison with the industry’s current standard. Now AEM Technologies can make eight steam generators per annum.

A steam generator is a first-class safety product. A steam generator is over 4 meters in diameter and about 15 meters in length. This piece of equipment weighs 340 tonnes. The body is a horizontal cylinder with two elliptical ends. In the middle one can find manifolds to pump and drain hot heat transfer agent. The upper part is occupied by steam while the lower part is used for heat exchange. One power-generating unit of a nuclear power plant requires four steam generators.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build a new-generation nuclear power plant with two VVER-1200 type reactors (1,200MW each) 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.