Critical component fabricated for Kudankulam reactor successfully tested 

TIRUNELVELI

ZIO-Podolsk JSC, an arm of the machine-building division of Rosatom State Corporation - JSC Atomenergomash, which is supplying critical components to the now operational 2 x 1,000 MWe VVER reactors and also four more similar reactors under construction, has fabricated and successfully tested a set of main equipment – the first set of separator-reheater – for Unit 5 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).

 The separator-reheater, MSR-1000-1, has been designed to remove moisture and superheat steam that has worked out in the high-pressure cylinder and enters the low-pressure cylinder of the turbine. MSR-1000-1 is a cylindrical apparatus consisting of a separator and a single-stage reheater, which, when mounted at the nuclear power plant, are located vertically one after the other. The weight of the separator is 47 tons with the length of almost 7 meter and the diameter of 4 m.

 The reheater is a heat exchanger with the length of 7.70 meter and the diameter of 4 meter consists of 222 individual cassettes that collectively weighs 108 tons.

Simultaneously, the second set of MSR, a long lead item, for KKNPP’s Unit 5 is also being fabricated as the test assembly of the first apparatus was successfully carried out recently at Podolsk near Moscow. The specialists of the plant carried out mating of the MSR components in which the separator and the reheater were connected using technological plates. The test assembly helps to ensure the alignment of all elements. This process drastically reduces the time and simplifies the equipment installation at the construction site.

 The total weight of the assembled product with the height of about 18 m and the diameter of 4 m is 162 tons. The production process of one set lasts an average of 8 months.

Specialists of ZIO-Podolsk JSC Nuclear Engineering Department developed the engineering design, as well as working design documentation of this vital component and also support the production of the product as it has been a developer and manufacturer of MSRs for Russian and foreign nuclear power plants since 1979.