Dome installed at Ostrovets 2

ASE, the engineering subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has installed the containment building dome for unit 2 of the nuclear power plant under construction near Ostrovets, in the Grodno region of Belarus. The unit - one of two VVER-1200 type reactors at the plant which will give 2340 MWe net capacity online - is scheduled for start-up in 2020.

ASE, the engineering subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has installed the containment building dome for unit 2 of the nuclear power plant under construction near Ostrovets, in the Grodno region of Belarus. The unit - one of two VVER-1200 type reactors at the plant which will give 2340 MWe net capacity online - is scheduled for start-up in 2020.

Installation of the reactor containment dome at Ostrovets 2 (Image: ASE)

The dome forms part of the unit's double-walled containment structure - a major component for protecting the reactor and preventing the release of radioactive materials into the environment in the event of a serious accident. It consists of two parts, which together weigh more than 230 tonnes, and has an internal diameter at its base of 44 meters.

ASE on 1 April installed the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of Ostrovets 1, which is scheduled to start up in late 2018-early 2019. Each RPV weighs more than 330t, is 11m long and 4.5m in diameter.

"The installation of the dome completes work on the installation of the metal structures of the inner protective shell of the reactor building," Sergey Olontsev, senior vice president for the management of Russian projects at ASE, said in a company statement on 10 October. Over the next few days, specialists will begin reinforcing and concreting the steel structures, he added.

The inner containment is part of the reactor's system of protective hermetic shells designed to prevent the release of radiation into the environment. This system can withstand both an internal pressure of (5 kg/cubic metre) and an external impact, such as from an aircraft or a blast producing a pressure of 30 kPa, ASE said.

AEM Technology, another Rosatom subsidiary said it has shipped 210 tonnes of reactor internals for Ostrovets 2. These were produced by Atommash, a branch of AEM Technology. AEM Technology has produced more than 50 large items of equipment for the Ostrovets plants, including melt localisation devices, reactor vessels, steam generator sets, main circulation pipelines and main circulation pumps. Since 2013 it has delivered 4000 tonnes of equipment to the site. The plant was designed by Gidropress, which is part of Atomenergomash.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News