The fabrication of the reactor and steam generators for Unit 6 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, being executed with Russian technical knowhow, has commenced in Volgodonsk.
Russia’s Rosatom – Atomenergomash has already constructed 2x1,000 MWe VVER reactors at Kudankulam, and is building four more reactors with similar capacity at the upcoming nuclear park for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). The fabrication of the reactor and steam generators for Unit 6 is being carried out by Atommash, AEM-Technologies, a machine-building division of Rosatom.
As the reactor and steam generator shells have passed the incoming inspection, the components are at the initial operations of the manufacturing cycle. Preliminary work for anti-corrosive overlay is being carried out on the flange and bottom of the reactor. At the welding unit, protective overlay is applied on the bodies of the primary circuit collector of the steam generator, an official statement said.
Within the frames of the contract for the fifth and sixth power units of the KKNPP, JSC AEM-Technologies will manufacture and supply two nuclear reactors with internals and an upper block of the VVER-1000 type, two sets of steam generators, reactor coolant pump set bodies, main circulation piping, emergency core cooling system tanks, passive core flooding system tanks and two pressurisers. The total weight of these components will be about 6,000 tonnes.Since the reactor, an item of the first safety class, has a vertical cylindrical body with an elliptical bottom, it is hermetically sealed from above with a cover, with drives of mechanisms and control and protection bodies installed on it and nozzles for the output of cables of sensors for in-core monitoring.
The steam generator, a heat exchanger and a part of a steam generating unit with a diameter of more than 4 m and a length of 14 m, weighs 340 tonnes. The reactor will have four steam generators to ensure unhindered power generation.
