Focus on large equipment manufacturing

Production of key equipment for the new Paks nuclear power plant units has started in St Petersburg, Russia, and Belfort, France. At the latter site, the first turbine components are already being manufactured - the Arabelle Solutions turbine is part of the company's family of turbines developed specifically for nuclear power plants and is one of the most advanced units available today. In St. Petersburg, the forging of the reactor vessel for Unit 6 has started.

The experts from Paks II audited the manufacturer at both locations. „Hungarian experts have made and continue to make tremendous efforts, from design review and licensing to continuous production monitoring,” said Krisztián Szarvas, who, as head of the Paks II technical team, monitored the start of production on site. The technical director of Paks II. Zrt. emphasised that the St. Petersburg facility is one of Europe's largest automated forging complexes. „We witnessed memorable moments not only for laymen, but also for technical experts. It is an impressive sight when the forging of hundreds of tonnes of red-hot elements begins,” said Krisztián Szarvas.

He stressed that it is an important message that less than a year has passed since the production of the tank for Block 5 started in the same factory, and experts are already working on the equipment for Block 6. In the meantime, some elements of the Unit 5 reactor vessel have been completed, the final acceptance of the stub rings will take place shortly and the assembly of the equipment will start at the AEM-Technologies plant in Volgodonsk. In the meantime, the National Atomic Energy Office has issued the production notification approval decision for the internal equipment of both reactor vessels - the zone seal, the zone basket and the containment block - on the basis of which production of these equipment can start.

"All of these steps have been preceded by a lengthy authorisation process. The Hungarian experts, both from Paks II and from the background institutions, have set serious conditions to ensure that these main installations will be built with the appropriate manufacturing technology and technical content. A wealth of experience has been gained during the operation of units 1 to 4, which our colleagues have integrated into the production process. Long discussions and negotiations have led to the final submission to the authority of a production documentation that guarantees that the units and their main equipment will be able to serve the planned operating time and even beyond" , the Technical Director explained.

Krisztián Szarvas said that the production is in good hands, and that the start-up audit has been positive. This is not the end of the task of the Hungarian experts, as they will be present throughout the production and will carry out a total of seven hundred quality checks to ensure that the equipment is manufactured in accordance with the quality plan and in compliance with Russian, Hungarian and European standards, the technical director of the Paks II. Zrt. concluded.