Rosatom workers have completed the operation to concrete the domed part of the outer containment (NZO – Naruzhnoi Zatsitnoi Obolochki) at unit 1 of the Akkuyu NPP under construction in Türkiye. The operation involved two tower cranes, six concrete distribution booms and 34 auto concrete mixers. The work was carried out in four stages and took 104 days. In total, 3,511 cubic metres of high-strength self-absorbing concrete mixture were laid in this part of the NZO.
“The outer containment shell is one of the main safety systems of the power unit. The durable reinforced concrete structure will reliably protect the reactor installation from external influences. Completion of the concreting of the NPO will allow us to begin installation of another important element of nuclear power plant safety – the passive heat removal system,” commented Sergei Butskikh, General Director of project company Akkuyu Nukleer.
The reactor building NZO is formed from reinforced concrete and is designed to withstand even the most severe stresses: earthquakes with an intensity of up to 9 points on the MSK-64 scale and hurricanes with a force of up to 60 meters per second. Reactor buildings for VVER-1200 reactors are equipped with a system of double (external and internal) containment shells. They ensure a high level of safety for the nuclear power plant. Inside the outer containment there is an inner containment shell, which ensures the tightness of the area where the reactor installation is located, and also serves as a support for pipelines and a polar crane.
Akkuyu, Türkiye’s first NPP, will eventually host four Russian-designed VVER-1200 reactors. The pouring of first concrete for unit 1 took place in April 2018, for unit 2 in June 2020, for unit 3 in March 2021, and for unit 4 in July 2022. Rosatom is constructing the reactors according to a build-own-operate model. Unit 1 is expected to begin operation in 2025. In July Akkuyu NPP reported that some 70% of the equipment and systems installed at unit 1 had already undergone commissioning.
