AEM-technologies, JSC, Branch in Volgodonsk (is a part of Machine-building division of Rosatom - Atomenergomash) completed the installation of a set of steam generators for the second power unit of Kursk NPP-2.
Tube bundle installation is a key stage during the manufacturing process of steam generators. Within 21 days, specialists using the lathe, give a coil shape to a tube. One heat exchanger requires 11 000 stainless steel tubes with a diameter of 16 mm and a length from 11 to 17 meters.
At the assembly site, the finished coils are installed inside the steam generator vessel, then sequentially expanded and the ends of the tubes are welded to the primary circuit collectors. This is the way to form the tube bundle of 105 horizontal rows.
Then, the specialists fix support elements and internals. After the installation, the equipment is subjected to hydraulic test and to a whole range of test operations, including eddy current test of heat exchange tubes.
The steam generator is a heat exchange equipment, a part of the reactor plant and belongs to the products of the first safety class. The diameter is more than 4 meters, the length of the item is 15 meters, and the weight is 340 tons. The equipment of one NPP unit includes four steam generators.
The Kursk NPP-2 project includes four power units with Russian reactor plants of VVER-TOI type (Water-Cooled Power Reactor Universal Optimized Digital), is being built according to the VVER-TOI project, and complies with IAEA safety requirements. The capacity of each power unit will be 1200 MW.