MINSK, 11 May (BelTA) – The Volgodonsk-based branch of the Russian company AEM Technologies (part of Atomenergomash, which is the mechanical engineering division of the Russian state corporation Rosatom) has just finished one of the most important and technically sophisticated steps in making the first steam generator for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA has learned. In particular, heat-exchange pipes have been placed inside the steam generator's shell, the Atomenergomash press service told BelTA.
Some 11,000 stainless pipes with the total length of about 125km have been used in the course of the operation. The assembly division where the operation was carried out is designed to allow placing heat-exchange pipes into two sets of steam generators at the same time. Pipes are now being placed inside the second steam generator. Thus, these products are made in parallel.
As the next step the bottom part of the steam generator will be welded on to the steam generator shell. The assembled piece of equipment will have to go through hydraulic testing and a number of checks.
A steam generator is a first-class safety product. The steam generator's diameter exceeds 4m, with the generator's length close to 15m. This piece of equipment weighs 340 tonnes. A steam generator is designed as a horizontally placed cylinder with two elliptical bottoms. In the middle part there are collectors used to deliver hot heat transfer agent to and from the steam generator. One power-generating unit of the nuclear power plant requires four steam generators.
Established in 2007, AEM Technologies is part of Atomenergomash. AEM Technologies makes equipment for nuclear energy industry, heat energy industry, gas, oil and chemical industries. AEM Technologies has an engineering division in Saint Petersburg and two manufacturing divisions in Petrozavodsk (Petrozavodskmash) and Volgodonsk (Atommash).
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.
