The transport gateway used in NPPs with VVER type reactors serves as a barrier between the reactor room and the external environment. It is a hermetically sealed chamber on both sides, through which nuclear fuel and equipment are transported during the construction and operation phase.
“According to the project for the construction of Kursk NPP-2, at the 26th mark in the reactor building there will be three gateways: the main one and a reserve designed for personnel access to the containment zone, as well as a transport gateway,” explained Kursk NPP Director Alexander Uvakin. “The assembled transport gateway weighs 260 tonnes and is a cylindrical vessel with two canvas lids on the sealed and non-sealed zones. To lock it, the principle of bayonet engagement is used: two parts are connected by aligning the protrusions on one half with the corresponding grooves on the second and scrolling them.”
The length of the equipment is 15 metres, the height with open canvases is 20 metres and the diameter is 8 metres. Because of its size, linstaallation of a transport gateway is a labour-intensive and painstaking process. The gateway often requires repeated reloading from one vehicle to another. It is first transported 1,700 km by water. Specialists then roll it from the barge using a special technique. At the pier, using a hydraulic portal, it is reloaded from a modular trailer onto special rolling stock, which includes a low-profile transport bed to reduce the height of the road train for delivery to the construction site.
“Next, preparatory work for installation of the transport gateway will begin,” said Oleg Shperle, Vice President of Atomstroyexport JSC and Project Director for the construction of Kursk-II. “Its rigging to the 26th mark will begin in June – this is the initial stage of a long and high-precision construction operation. We will have to release the lock, install the canvas covers and the main equipment, and then undergo a long period of commissioning in order to synchronise the lock with all transport elements. The whole complex of works is performed by the contractor organisation Energospetsmontazh JSC.”
Kursk II will replace the currently operating Kursk NPP, which comprises four ageing RBMK reactors (one of which is already closed). Units 1&2, currently under construction, will have VVER-TOI reactors – a development of the VVER-1200 reactor design. The VVER-TOI has increased power and improved technical and economic indicators, as well as increased resistance to extreme
