AAEM (a joint venture of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division Atomenergomash and GE Steam Power) said on 5 April that it had delivered the first high and medium pressure cylinder rotor of the Arabelle steam turbine to the Akkuyu NPP site in Turkey. The equipment is intended for unit 1 of the NPP being built by Rosatom in Mersin Province. The rotor was manufactured by GE Steam Power at a factory in France in Belfort with the support of AAEM, four months ahead of schedule. In total, the 107-ton rotor, which is 12 metres long, took 16 months to manufacture. GE Steam Power's unique Arabelle welded rotor design provides increased steam turbine operational reliability. A total of four Arabelle low-speed steam turbines will be installed at the Akkuyu NPP, one for each unit. Each turbine includes three modules: a high and medium pressure cylinder module and two low pressure modules. In total, each turbine will be about 60 metres long, together with a generator.
AAEM was established in 2007 to complete the turbine rooms of Russian-designed NPPs using the GE Steam Power Arabelle steam turbine technology. Since 2017, AAEM has been supplying equipment for complete steam turbine units for the Akkuyu NPP. The NPP design provides for four power units with Russian VVER-1200 generation 3+ reactors. The installed capacity of each NPP unit will be 1,255 MWe AAEM specialist are responsible for engineering, design and supply of equipment for the turbine hall, The Arabelle low speed steam turbine, the GIGATOP four-pole turbo generator and condenser evacuation equipment will be manufactured by GE Steam Power. Pumping, heat exchange and other auxiliary equipment will mainly be manufactured at the enterprises of Atomenergomash enterprises including ZiO-Podolsk (Moscow region), TsKBM (St Petersburg), Ganz (Hungary), Arako (Czech Republic), Atomtruboprovodmontazh (Udomlya) and NPO TsNIITMASH (Moscow).