HOME / NEW NUCLEAR / WORK STARTS ON KURSK II-2 FOUNDATION PLATE

Work starts on Kursk II-2 foundation plate

Monday, 10 December 2018

Construction work has started on the foundation plate of the reactor building of unit 2 of the Kursk II nuclear power plant in western Russia. This is the second of the VVER-TOI design nuclear reactors.

Work starts on Kursk II-2 foundation plate — Trest Rossam personnel at the Kursk II-2 construction site (Image: Rosatom)

Kursk II will replace four RBMK units currently operating at the site and commissioning of the first two Kursk II units will be synchronised with the closure of Kursk 1 and 2. It will initially consist of two 1200 MWe VVER-TOI units that will each add 25% to reactor capacity compared with units of the VVER-1000 design. The design also provides for a doubling of the service life of reactor equipment - from 30 to 60 years, with the possibility of extending this to 80 years.

Trest Rossam LLC began laying reinforcement for the lower part of the base plate of the reactor building of Kursk II on 7 December, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said today. Installation of 105 reinforced blocks with a total weight of more than 1600 tons will then be installed, enabling pouring of first concrete in the first half of next year, it added.

Kursk Nuclear Power Plant Director Vyacheslav Fedyukin said the work was ahead of schedule thanks to improvements to the technology used and to the experience gained from work at unit 1.

Other work under way at the Kursk II-2 construction site includes concreting the foundation plate of the block pumping station, the first part of the main cooling water system, as well as installation of the main cooling water pipeline system, within the boundaries of the turbine building, Rosatom said. Installation of the first tier of the inner containment shell will be carried out in May and work has also begun on preparations to lay concrete for the auxiliary reactor building, it added.

The new units meet the latest International Atomic Energy Agency safety requirements, Rosatom said, including a core melt trap - a device provided to catch the molten core material (corium) of a reactor in case of a meltdown and prevent it from escaping the containment building - and a passive heat removal system, which allows the reactor core to be cooled in the absence of power supply due to natural air circulation. The reactor design also features enhanced seismic resistance, it said.