At the Power Unit No 2 of Novovoronezh NPP-2 the Loading of the Imitation Zone of the VVER-1200 Reactor Has Started

At the power unit No 2 of Novovoronezh NPP-2 the loading of the fuel assembly imitators has started. According to the technology, before loading the reactor core with the nuclear fuel it is required to check the systems. In order to do this, 163 steel imitators – of the same weight and size as the fuel assemblies (FA) – are to be loaded in the reactor. The difference between them is that the imitators have leaden tablets instead of uranium dioxide ones.

“We use them for testing of the basic hydraulic characteristics of the reactor core, the main circulating pumps and other reactor systems. They will be used during the hot and cold trial that will last for 21 days”, the leading engineer-physicist of the Nuclear Safety and Reliability Department of NV NPP Mikhail Zhuk explained.

It is to be noted that these are the imitators that were used two years ago at the innovative power unit No 1 of Novovoronezh NPP-2 with VVER-1200 reactor, then they were moved to the power unit No 1 of Leningrad NPP-2. Now they are brought to Novovoronezh again.