Body parts for Belarusian nuclear reactor ready as from November

The public joint-stock company Energomashspetsstal, which is based in Kramatorsk, Ukraine and is part of OAO Atomenergomash (the mechanical engineering division of the Russian state corporation Rosatom) will complete fabricating intermediate parts of the nuclear reactor body for the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Q1 2014. The company intends to start shipping the reactor body parts in November 2013, Andrei Valenty, Energomashspetsstal‘s Operations Director, told media on 29 October.

BelTA has learned that the Belarusian reactor needs 12 parts, including two shell rings for the reactor’s active zone, which used to be made of three shell rings. The larger one weighs 106 tonnes and exceeds 4.5m in diameter. It will be made out of an ingot weighing 415 tonnes.

According to Andrei Valenty, a new technology is used to make the shell rings in order to reduce the number of welded seams, thus improving the reliability of intermediate products.

Once the parts are ready, they will be shipped to the Volgodonsk-based division of the Russian company ZAO AEM Technologies (also part of Atomenergomash) where the body of the reactor will be assembled.

Energomashspetsstal and ZAO AEM Technologies (Saint Petersburg) signed the contracts to make parts of the reactor body for the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in H1 2013.

“Energomashspetsstal is a certified supplier of nuclear products. The company has mastered the entire manufacturing cycle from ingot melting to manufacturing a component. The accumulated experience, modern hardware and technologies in addition to a multilayer quality control system allow us to say we are ready to make parts for other equipment of the Belarusian nuclear power plant,” said Andrei Valenty. The enterprise operates a certified lab.

Later on Energomashspetsstal intends to get contracts for manufacturing intermediate parts for the primary circulating pump, the primary circulation pipeline, and for collectors of steam generators of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “We intend to get contracts for the entire set of metallurgical intermediaries for the nuclear block,” said Energomashspetsstal Director General Maxim Yefimov. The contract for the steam generators may be signed in November. If the contracts are signed, the company is ready to complete the work by July 2014.

Energomashspetsstal is in charge of manufacturing metallurgical products and intermediate products for OAO Atomenergomash, which is the mechanical engineering division of the Russian state corporation Rosatom. Energomashspetsstal is Ukraine’s largest manufacturer of special cast and forged products for the nuclear energy industry and the conventional energy industry.

In 2012 Energomashspetsstal completed a complex retooling program, which was made possible only thanks to support from Rosatom. In 2005-2012 over $300 million was invested in modernization. The investments allowed completely renewing the manufacturing infrastructure of the company, including steel melting, thermal forging, and machining divisions. Among other things the modernization minimized the presence of the human factor that can negatively influence the quality of products. Work to that effect continues.

Energomashspetsstal has the capability to make a wide range of products for the metallurgy industry, shipbuilding, power engineering industry (wind, steam, hydro, and nuclear types) and for general mechanical engineering. Energomashspetsstal has fulfilled orders for the Baltic nuclear power plant, Rostov, Leningrad, and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants. At present the company is working to make products for the Belarusian and Baltic nuclear power plants.

A tour of Energomashspetsstal for representatives of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian mass media was arranged on 29 October. The reporters were made familiar with peculiarities involved in manufacturing products for the nuclear industry. In particular, at present the company is making intermediate parts for the reactor body for the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (Ostrovets site) and intermediate parts for the RITM-200 reactor of Russia’s first new-generation atomic icebreaker with the output of 60MW.