Andrey Osharin, first deputy director for new unit construction at Kursk 2, sad the task was completed three weeks ahead of schedule. He said the RPV was delivered to the site in September 2021. Since then, “a huge amount of work has been performed for the preparation of the transportation and the process flow sheet for the vessel installation”.
Mr Osharin said the RPV placement marks a major step towards commissioning work at the plant. According to Rosatom, the maximum allowable deviation during the installation operation was one tenth of a millimetre – the thickness of a shaving razor.
The two new units under construction at the site of the existing Kursk nuclear power station will be the first of Russia’s Generation III+ VVER-TOI pressurised water reactor type. The VVER-TOI technology was developed from the 1,200 MW AES-2006 pressurised water reactor.
Construction of Kursk 2-1 began in April 2018 and of Kursk 2-2 in April 2019.
The Kursk 2 nuclear power station is being constructed as a replacement of four power units with RBMK-1000 reactors of the operating Kursk 1 nuclear power station that will be decommissioned. Commissioning of the first two power units of Kursk 2 is planned to be synchronised with the decommissioning of the operating Kursk 1-1 and Kursk 1-2 plants.
Earlier this month all four steam generators were installed on schedule at Kursk 2-1 nuclear power plant.
