Fennovoima and Rosatom carry out a joint nuclear construction project in Finland. The Hanhikivi-1 project design provides for the installation of Alfa Laval heat exchangers, the same as used at Kalinin NPP. The Russian nuclear power plant has accumulated rich experience in the operation and maintenance of this equipment since the startup of Kalinin Unit 4 in 2011. This was the reason behind the decision of Finnish experts to visit the Kalinin nuclear station and consider equipment parameters and capacity on the site.
“We know that Kalinin operates similar equipment both on the reactor and turbine islands. We need to get as much information as possible to make a final decision about the heat exchangers to be used in the project. It will be definitely based on the information gathered and our impressions of the visit,” explains Erkki Antero Pulkkinen, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Fennovoima.
Managers and engineers from different departments of the Kalinin NPP provided detailed answers to the questions about specific operation modes of the heat exchangers and demonstrated the equipment in action when the Finnish delegation visited the turbine island.
The contract for Hanhikivi-1 was signed in 2013 between Fennovoima Oy and Rusatom Energy International. In 2014, Rosatom’s project design company Atomproekt and Rusatom Energy International signed an agreement to develop the full set of project design documents for Hanhikivi-1. In June 2015, the project stakeholders applied for a construction permit. On 19 January 2016, an official ceremony took place on the Hanhikivi construction site in Pyhäjoki (Finland) to mark the beginning of groundworks. The commissioning of Hanhikivi-1 is scheduled for 2024.
