Rosatom’s engineering subsidiary has to finalize engineering documents for the installation of process control, solid radioactive waste transportation and fresh nuclear fuel storage equipment by the end of summer. Atomproekt is developing the full package of project design and engineering documents for the nuclear islands of Tianwan Units 3 and 4. The company is responsible for the general project design and interfaces.

While Atomproekt is finalizing the project design of Unit 3, construction of other facilities is going full tilt. Last year the reactor vessel was installed in the reactor pit to mark an important step forward in the project. Other core components were also assembled and mounted, including steam generators, main circulation pump casings and a pressurizer. Installation of the main circulation circuit is now underway.

OKB Gidropress (a subsidiary of Rosatom’s nuclear engineering division) has begun the production of startup instrumentation systems for Tianwan Units 3 and 4. They are designed to verify the compliance of actual parameters with design specifications of the reactor unit.

The instrumentation systems include primary transducers mounted on the reactor components, amplifiers, converters and recorders. They control vibration, thermal, mechanical, hydraulic and other parameters, as well as geometry of the reactor components during the startup phase.

Instrumentation systems developed and produced by OKB Gidropress has been tested and used at nuclear power plants in Russia (Kalinin, Novovoronezh and Rostov) and abroad (Bushehr in Iran, Kudankulam in India and Tianwan 1 and 2 in China).

For reference: Tianwan-1 and Tianwan-2 are based on Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactors and were commissioned in 2007. The Tianwan nuclear power plant is among the world safest nuclear stations. In March 2010, China’s Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC) and ASE (Russia) signed a framework agreement to construct two new reactor units at Tianwan in China.