Russian state owned nuclear gieant ROSATOM announced that the VVER-TOI reactor pressure vessel has been installed at unit 1 of the Kursk-II NPP under construction in Russia, three weeks ahead of schedule after it was delivered to the site in September 2021. The operation was carried out in several stages. First, a Liebherr crawler crane brought the RPV to the transport portal of the power unit and loaded it onto a special transport trolley. Then the equipment was moved to the central hall of the reactor compartment and, using a polar crane, was installed on a support ring in the reactor shaft. The maximum allowable deviation during installation was one tenth of a millimetre, the thickness of a razor blade.The VVER-TOI reactor vessel has its own characteristics. It differs from the VVER-1200 project not only with a more symmetrical arrangement of nozzles, but also in the smaller number of welds - four instead of six as there are no welded joints in the core area. This provides an improvement in performance, given that radiation exposure adversely affects the structure of a weld. This modernisation will make it possible, after 60 years of operation, to extend the service life of the hull twice more, each time by 20 years.The VVER-TOI RPV weighs 340 tons and is 12 metres long. It is made of nickel free steel, which does not change its properties under the influence of radiation and at high temperatures. The product is able to withstand a pressure of 250 atmospheres, which is 1.4 times higher than the previous RPV. The equipment was manufactured at the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk.
Russian state owned nuclear gieant ROSATOM announced that the VVER-TOI reactor pressure vessel has been installed at unit 1 of the Kursk-II NPP under construction in Russia, three weeks ahead of schedule after it was delivered to the site in September 2021. The operation was carried out in several stages. First, a Liebherr crawler crane brought the RPV to the transport portal of the power unit and loaded it onto a special transport trolley. Then the equipment was moved to the central hall of the reactor compartment and, using a polar crane, was installed on a support ring in the reactor shaft. The maximum allowable deviation during installation was one tenth of a millimetre, the thickness of a razor blade.The VVER-TOI reactor vessel has its own characteristics. It differs from the VVER-1200 project not only with a more symmetrical arrangement of nozzles, but also in the smaller number of welds - four instead of six as there are no welded joints in the core area. This provides an improvement in performance, given that radiation exposure adversely affects the structure of a weld. This modernisation will make it possible, after 60 years of operation, to extend the service life of the hull twice more, each time by 20 years.The VVER-TOI RPV weighs 340 tons and is 12 metres long. It is made of nickel free steel, which does not change its properties under the influence of radiation and at high temperatures. The product is able to withstand a pressure of 250 atmospheres, which is 1.4 times higher than the previous RPV. The equipment was manufactured at the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk.
