Specialists have completed installation of the ventilation pipe on the auxiliary reactor building of unit 2 at Russia’s Kursk-II NPP, according to Rosatom’s Engineering Division. Installation of a complex metal structure was carried out in three main stages. After the manufacture of pipe elements in the workshop, they were assembled on the ground into a single unit 64.5 metres long at a special site in the immediate vicinity of the building. Then, using the Terex-Demag caterpillar with a lifting capacity of 1200 tonnes, the unit was installed in position.
The total duration of work on the manufacture, enlargement and installation of the ventilation pipe was 35 days, which is 27 days fewer than for the installation at unit 1. This was due to optimisation of technological processes and improve efficiency.
The ventilation pipe is part of the ventilation system of the reactor building and is designed to remove excess heat and moisture, as well to maintain the necessary conditions for the operation of equipment and maintenance personnel during repair and trans-shipment work or reactor shutdown. Highly purified air is fed into the pipe after passing through filter plants.
“The ventilation pipe is one of the tallest structures of the power unit, exceeded only by the 179-metre evaporation cooling tower” noted Oleg Shperle, vice president of ASE JSC & Director of the Kursk NPP construction project. “The design characteristics of the ventilation pipe allow for serious wind loads and seismic impact of magnitude 6.”
Kursk II is intended as a replacement station for the currently operating Kursk NPP, which comprises four ageing RBMK reactors, one of which is already closed. Units 1&2, currently under construction, are being built according to the VVER-TOI project (standard optimised informatised pressurised water power reactor), which is a development of the VVER-1200 reactor design.
Image courtesy of Rosatom
