Construction has officially started on the Baltic nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad. General contractor OJSC NIAEP and subcontractor Northern Construction Directorate poured 1800 cubic metres of concrete to form the foundations of the unit 1 nuclear island in late February.
First concrete proceeded on schedule according to Alexander Chebotarev, the chief engineer from the Baltic NPP Construction Directorate. “The concreting was preceded by a serious preparatory stage. It was necessary to test availability of concrete mixing plants on the site. Concrete mix delivery and its placement were in accordance with the plan. All these are very important because concreting is a continuous process. All work stages were without disruptions,” he said.
Chebotarev said that every batch of concrete was checked by an onsite laboratory and that concreting specialists from the B.Ye. Vedeneev VNIIG institute were involved in monitoring quality.
Work on the Baltic NPP site currently involves around 500 people and consists of continuing to build the rebar cage at the foundation plates of the reactor building and auxhiliry building. In total, 500 tons of rebar and some 7500 cubic meters of concrete will be required to build the foundations for these two buildings.
The two units at Baltic NPP will be the VVER-1200 design and are due to be commissioned in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The plant will not only cover the energy requirement of the Kaliningrad region, but will also secure energy exports to the Baltic states and north-west Europe.
Earlier this month (February 2012) Russian-French joint venture Alstom-Atomenergomash (AAEM) signed an agreement worth more than EUR 875 million to supply turbine island equipment for units 1&2 of Baltic NPP.
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