New nuclear station will be first to use VVER-TOI technology
Russia’s state nuclear construction company Atomstroyexport has finished concreting the outer containment dome for the Kursk 2-1 nuclear power unit under construction in western Russia.
Atomstroyexport said the move marks the final stage of building the containment structure, which protects the reactor systems from “external influences”.
The company said the outer containment took 206 days to complete with the dome requiring about 4,000 cubic metres of concrete alone.
Russia’s Generation III VVER pressurised water reactor (PWR) systems have a two-part containment by design – one to protect from external physical influence and a second to secure the hermetic tightness around the core reactor equipment.
Kursk 2-1 will be the first of Russia’s Generation III+ VVER-TOI PWR nuclear plants. The VVER-TOI technology was developed from the 1,200 MW AES-2006 PWR.
Kursk 2 is being built to replace four RBMK-1000 units at the Kursk 1 nuclear power station that will be decommissioned.
The station will have two VVER-TOI units. Construction of Kursk 2-1 began in April 2018 and of Kursk 2-2 in April 2019.
