Welding of the main circulation pipeline (MCP) has started in the reactor department at unit 4 of Russia's Rostov NPP, principal construction contractor NIAEP (part of the ASE group of companies) said on 29 February. Alexey Fedotov, deputy plant manager for capital projects at the Rostov plant, said that in 2016 "all major installation activities in the reactor and turbine departments should be completed" at unit 4. The MCP connects the essential primary equipment: reactor, steam generators and reactor coolant pumps. A total of 28 joints are to be welded. In 2013 welding of MCP at Rostov 3 took 143 days, NIAEP said, noting that the MCP at Leningrad II/1 was welded in 109 days, and at Novovoronezh II/1 in 102 days.
The unsealed reactor testing of process systems at unit 4 is scheduled for December 2016 and reactor start-up for 2017. The 2016 construction schedule contains several milestones which must be fulfilled. "The schedule is tight but tasks are doable," Andrei Salnikov, Rostov plant manager, emphasized.In February, the Specialized Research Institute of Instrument Engineering (SNIIP, part of Atomenergomash) delivered to the site a set of equipment for the in-core monitoring system (ICMS) and integrated analysis system (IAS) for unit 4.
