Construction of Russia’s Kursk II is proceeding ahead of schedule, the plant announced on 21 June.
General contractor, ASE Group ( the engineering division of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom) said concreting of the base plate for the reactor building of Kursk II-2 had been completed on 17 June 72 days before the target date.
More than 16,700 cubic metres of self-compacting concrete mixture had been used, the plant said, and reinforcement blocks weighing about 1500t tons are now in place. Concreting was carried out around the clock, with constant monitoring of the quality of the mixture, the plant said. After the concrete has achieved the necessary strength, and all the required laboratory tests have been carried out, installation of reinforced blocks and concreting of the walls will begin. Before the end of 2019, it is planned to install the first large-sized, heavy equipment at unit 2 – the melt trap. Currently, more than 2800 people are working at the construction site.
ASE said all tasks were in advance of the deadlines. Installation of the melt trap for Kursk II-1 was completed in February 145 days ahead of schedule.
ASE vice president and director of the Kursk project Alexey Dery attributed the acheivement to the coordinated and efficient work of specialists and managers of the Kursk branch of ASE, as well as subcontractors in the engineering division - Trest RosSEM and Energospetsmontazh.
Kursk II is a replacement station comprising two units with a capacity of 1255MWe each using VVER-TOI reactors. The general designer is Atomenergoproekt (part of the ASE Group) and the general contractor is the ASE Group. VVER-TOI is an evolutionary development based on the generation VVER-1200 reactor.
“The construction of both power units at Kursk II is now in the active phase,” said Dery. “The project team has a serious responsibility for the construction of the first reference NPP with VVER-TOI reactors. At the same time, it should be noted that a solid, efficient team has been established at the project, which is able to effectively solve all the tasks set before us.”
Recently, the Organisation of European Energy Producers approved the VVER-TOI project as complying with the European Utility Requirement (EUR) requirements. Russia is looking to serial construction of NPPs with VVER-TOI reactors both in Russia and abroad.
Photo: The foundation concreting for the 2nd VVER-TOI power block’s reactor-auxiliary building has been completed at the Kursk II-2 ahead of schedule (Credit: Rosenergoatom)
