Representatives of the Turkish Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NDK) on 19 April visited Russian manufacturers of equipment and materials intended for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant being built in Mersin province by Rosatom. The NDK delegation visited the production site of Izhorskiye Zavody in St Petersburg, where the reactor pressure vessel for unit 2 of the Akkuyu NPP is being manufactured, as well as many other components of the plant's main equipment. They also visited the production workshops of the OMZ-Spetsstal company, where metal blanks for the vessel equipment of the Akkuyu reactor as well as the NPO Spetsmaterialov joint-stock company, a manufacturer of locks and sealed doors. The final inspection was a visit to Titan Technology Pipeline, a subsidiary of the Concern Titan-2 holding, which manufactures various metal structures, including embedded parts, reinforced blocks and elements of the internal containment shell of the reactor building.
The Turkish delegation, led by the head of the NDK's supervisory department, Yusuf Ceylan, were accompanied by representatives of Akkuyu Nuclear, including Managing Director for International Cooperation Alexei Frolov and Director for Regulatory Relations Akhmet Celik. The NDK team held discussions met with the heads of manufacturing plants and heads of departments responsible for quality control as well as with Grigory Naginsky, General Director of Concern Titan-2.
Frolov said NDK is closely supervising all stages of the manufacture of blanks and equipment for the Akkuyu NPP to ensure compliance with regulatory documents and licenses issued by the regulator. Turkish legislation requires that all factories supplying equipment and materials for the Akkuyu NPP should be subject to NDK certification. “During the process of manufacturing equipment and materials, NDK representatives regularly visit factories to undertake inspection activities at certain control points and monitor production for compliance with quality plans,” he noted.
Yusuf Ceylan, head of NDK's oversight department said: “From NDK's point of view, the most important aspect of the design and manufacture of equipment is adherence to nuclear safety principles. The NDK and the Organisation for the Technical Support of Inspection Activities (NÜTED) carefully study the quality plans and, at predetermined control points, stage by stage carry out inspection and visual control of production at the manufacturing plants for all equipment of the first, second and third classes of safety. Before this equipment is sent to the NPP construction site, we need to make sure that it is manufactured in accordance with all safety standards and requirements.”
