A fully mounted containment will ensure the maximum level of safety of the nuclear power plant.
August 22, 2024 – Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, Türkiye. Russian and Turkish specialists have completed the installation of the lower dome part of the outer containment (OC) in the design position at Power Unit No.1 of the Akkuyu NPP (being built by Rosatom State Corporation in Turkey).
The large-sized metal structure was being installed at a height of 63 meters and took 10 hours. A mounted part weighted 340 tons, the diameter was 50.8 meters.
"Power units of generation 3+ nuclear power plants are equipped with high-tech safety systems designed for extreme loads and their combinations, in particular earthquakes with an intensity of up to 9 points by the MSK-64 scale, hurricanes with a force of up to 60 m/s, tsunamis and shock waves up to 10 meters high. After the successful installation of the lower dome part of the outer containment, the builders of the Akkuyu NPP will install the OC dome in the next stage. The assembled large-sized reinforced concrete structure will protect the reactor plant from external effects during the entire service life of the nuclear power plant," noted Sergei Butckikh, CEO of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC.
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Modern Russian-designed power units with VVER-1200 reactors are equipped with a system of double (inner and outer) containments, which ensure the maximum level of safety of the nuclear power plant and add additional strength to the reactor building. In addition to the outer one, there is also an inner containment (IC). It ensure leak-tightness of the reactor building, act as support for pipelines and a polar crane which is used for nuclear reactor maintenance operations at the NPP operation stage.
Akkuyu NPP is the first nuclear power plant being built in the Republic of Türkiye. The Akkuyu NPP project includes four power units equipped with Generation 3+ VVER reactors of Russian design. The capacity of each power unit will be 1200 MW. Akkuyu NPP is the first project in the global nuclear industry being implemented according to the Build-Own-Operate model.