The reactor vessel of the VVER-TOI power unit No 1 of Kursk NPP-2 is planned to be placed at its proper location in 2020. It was told by the Director General of Rosenergoatom JSC (a part of Rosatom’s Electric Energy Division) Andrey Petrov during the working trip to Kurchatov (Kursk Oblast).

According to A. Petrov, during this and next year the active works on structural construction will be carried out at the construction site. “In the middle of 2020 we are planning to assemble the reactor vessel at its proper location. It is the main event that defines the schedule of the power unit’s construction”, Rosenergoatom Head noted.

On 9 August, 2018 he took part in the ceremonial event that was dedicated to one of the key events of the year – the completion of the first large technological operation. This was the concreting of the bed plate of KuNPP-2 power unit No 1. In order to commemorate this important event A. Petrov, the Kursk Oblast Governor A. Mikhailov, and the President of ASE Group of companies founded the time capsule.

According to the Plant Manager of Kursk NPP Vyacheslav Fedyukin, as the safety provision of the NPP is the fundamental basis of the company’s activity, the construction of replacement plant is carried out with the use of the most advanced technologies. This also refers to the concreting process. Each concrete batch is carefully tested by the laboratory methods before and after concreting. In accordance with the technological processes of the development of strength in concrete, the concrete placing pattern was changed as well (instead of 4 sections applied earlier, the bed plate is divided into 6 concreting sections).

In the construction of the bed plate 16.7 thousand cubic metres of the self-consolidating concrete was poured. It had already been tested during the construction of the new power units of Novovoronezh NPP. Such concrete is able to flow back and consolidate under its own weight without vibration and keep the reliability and uniformity of the mixture.

By the present time at KuNPP-2 construction site the external circuit of the underground part of the power unit No 1 reactor vessel (where the equipment of retaining the reactor core (melt trap) will be located) and technological facilities are formed. Also, the reinforced concrete blocks at the inner and ring walls of the facility are being assembled.