Russia produces 1st reactor base for Akkuyu nuke plant

By Firdevs Yuksel

ANKARA (AA) - The pressure vessel base for the Akkuyu nuclear plant's first reactor has been manufactured, the project developer company Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom said in a statement on Friday.

Atommash, the Volgodonsk branch of AEM-technology, which operates within Rosatom's machine-building division of Atomenergomash manufactured the reactor pressure vessel base for Turkey's first nuclear plant, according to the statement.

Twelve thousand tonnes of pressure was applied for the manufacture of the base.

"The manufacturing cycle of an Atommash reactor pressure vessel takes over two years. We have been constantly cooperating with our customer representatives. While manufacturing equipment for our foreign customers, we must comply not only with Russian norms and rules for nuclear plant equipment, but with the national standards of the country where we supply our products," said Rovshan Abbasov, director of Atommash.

On Sep. 19, 2017, the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency approved AEM-technology as an equipment manufacturer for the Akkuyu plant.

Abbasov confirmed that at present the main workload of the company is for export orders, while adding that the company gained the necessary experience by manufacturing and shipping a set of steam generators for an Indian nuclear power plant in October 2018.