Dome installed at Kalinin 4
06 January 2010
.jpg "Kalinin 4 containment dome 22 December 2009 (Rosatom)") |
| Easy does it... (Image: Rosatom) |
A construction milestone was reached on 22 December 2009 at Russia's Kalinin 4 with the installation of the containment dome.
The day-long operation to lift the 'skull cap' into place appropriately took place on the Day of Energy, a professional holiday for energy workers in Russia.
The reactor is a 1000 MWe, V-320 design VVER-1000 pressurized water unit, on which construction began back in August 1986, having been approved along with its twin unit Kalinin 3 by the energy ministry of the USSR in 1985.
However, work on unit 4 was suspended in June 1991 when it was 20% complete. Work on Kalinin 3 continued at a slow pace and the unit finally entered commercial operation in December 2004.
Construction resumed on Kalinin 4 in November 2007 with a program to boost Russian nuclear, starting with the completion of such stalled projects. It is now on track to enter service in 2011. The Nizhny-Novgorod branch of AtomEnergoProekt has the main construction role; JSC Machine Building Plant ZiO-Podolsk made some of the heavy forgings.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News