Petrozavodskmash completes containers for RBMK-1000 fuel transport

Russia's Petrozavodskmash has completed the manufacture of a serial batch of modified TUK-109T containers for the transport of used nuclear fuel from RBMK-1000 reactors. Petrozavodskmash is a branch of AEM Technologies, a subsidiary of Atomenergomash.

Russia's Petrozavodskmash has completed the manufacture of a serial batch of modified TUK-109T containers for the transport of used nuclear fuel from RBMK-1000 reactors. Petrozavodskmash is a branch of AEM Technologies, a subsidiary of Atomenergomash.

Modified TUK-109T containers (Image: Atomenergomash)

The containers have passed full-scale production tests, including hydraulic, pneumatic and cargo checks, AEM Technologies said.

Following the first train of TUK-109T containers, a new tender for the manufacture of the next series of the product is to be announced and Petrozavodskmash intends to participate in that, AEM Technologies added.

Petrozavodskmash project manager Yuri Kirillov said: "We hope to win the new tender since the ideas we have incorporated into our work on the first TUK-109T batch will reduce costs and accelerate production during the second manufacturing process."

The Soviet-designed RBMK (Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosty Kanalny, high-power channel reactor) is a pressurised water-cooled reactor with individual fuel channels and using graphite as its moderator. It is also known as the light water graphite reactor (LWGR). It is very different from most other power reactor designs as it was derived from a design principally for plutonium production and was intended and used in Russia for both plutonium and power production. The combination of graphite moderator and water coolant is found in no other power reactors in the world.

There are currently 11 operating RBMKs, all of which are in Russia. There are currently three distinct generations of reactors having significant differences with respect to their safety design features. The four first-generation units are Leningrad 1 and 2, and Kursk 1 and 2. They were designed and brought on line in the early-to-mid 1970s, before new standards on the design and construction of nuclear power plants, the OPB-82 General Safety Provisions, were introduced in the Soviet Union in 1982. Second-generation RBMKs, brought on line since the late 1970s and early 1980s include Leningrad 3 and 4; Kursk 3, and 4; Ignalina 1 in Lithuania (now closed); and Smolensk 1 and 2. Ignalina 2 (now closed) had safety features beyond those of other second generation units. These units conform to the OPB-82 standards. After the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, Soviet safety standards were revised again (OPB-88). One RBMK (Smolensk 3) has been built to these third-generation standards. Additional design changes were being incorporated in the construction of Kursk 5.

In 2006, Rosatom said it was considering lifetime extensions and uprating of its 11 operating RBMK reactors. Following significant design modifications made after the Chernobyl accident, as well as extensive refurbishment including replacement of fuel channels, a 45-year lifetime is seen as realistic for the 1000 MWe-class units. In 2005, they provided 48% of Russia's nuclear-generated electricity. The R&D Institute of Power Engineering is preparing plans for uprating them by 5%.

Russia's long-term plans had earlier included the possibility of replacing the Leningrad units, at the end of their extended service life, by new MKER-1000 units. These are a modification of the RBMK design. The main differences are in the spacing of the graphite lattice in the core and the incorporation of passive safety systems.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News