Atomenergomash completes components for Bangladesh, India projects​

The Petrozavodsk branch of AEM Technologies - part of the machine-building division of Atomenergomash - manufactured eight swing check valves for the Bangladesh's Rooppur nuclear power plant. In total, it will manufacture 184 units of pipeline valves for the plant including high and low-pressure wedge gate valves and swing check valves. Swing check valves belong to safety class 4 items and are intended for operation at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius and pressures of up to 11 MPa, the company said.

Valves are subjected to visual and dimensional inspections during the manufacturing process, AEM said, while weld joints are checked by means of penetrant test. The assembled items passed hydraulic tests for valve closure tightness and strength.

Two Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactors are being built at Rooppur which is 160 km from Dhaka. Construction of Rooppur 1 began in November 2017 and unit 2 in July 2018. The first unit is expected to enter commercial operation in 2023 or 2024 and the second in 2024 or 2025.

Separately, Atomenergomash subsidiary OKB Gidropress has shipped a 135-piece set of step electromagnet drives of the reactor control and protection system (CPS) to India for Kudankulam unit 4. Such systems control the insertion and removal of control rods into a reactor's core during reactor start-up, power regulation and shut-down operations. The CPS Drive SHEM-3 system was designed by OKB Gidropress for use in VVER reactors.

The components were shipped after the completion of bench tests for hot running-in and acceptance inspection of the drives, OKB said. The equipment was inspected for quality by representatives of Nuclear Power Corporation of India prior to shipment.

Two AES-92 design VVER-1000 units are under construction as the second phase of the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu. Kudankulam 1 and 2, both VVER-1000 units, have been in operation since 2014 and 2017, respectively.