Business news

This piece of equipment is the first out of the ten pullout parts to be made and shipped to the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site.

Main circulating pumps represent an integral part of reactor units in nuclear power plants. A main circulating pump is designed to keep the heat-transport medium flowing in the reactor’s primary circuit. These pumps operate in high pressure conditions. The safety of any nuclear power plant directly depends on the reliable and uninterrupted operation of the pumps.

A main circulating pump is a first-class safety product. As part of a nuclear power plant the main circulating pump enables heat-transport medium to flow inside the main circulation line and deliver heat energy from the reactor to the steam generators. Steam generators produce steam that sets the turbine generator in motion. The pump enclosure for a main circulating pump handles heat-transport medium with pressures as high as 180 atmospheres and temperatures as high as 300C. Due to safety requirements all the welding seams of the pump enclosure have to pass several kinds of audits: x-raying, ultrasound examination, and dye penetrant examination. A main circulating pump weighs 31.5 tonnes, is 3.5m wide and 3m high.

The GTsNA-1391 main circulating pump model was created by the Central Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau in the late 1980s – early 1990s. An axial radial bearing, which is lubricated and cooled by water, is the key feature of the design. The pump model is used by the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant as well as nuclear power plants in Iran, China, and India.

For 70 years the Central Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau has been designing and making high-tech equipment for the nuclear energy industry: main circulating pumps, leak-proof pumps, cantilever pumps, feed pumps, and emergency pumps for nuclear power plants as well as a wide range of remote-controlled transport and technology equipment for handling radioactive materials.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The BelNPP 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.