The circulation cleaning of the reactor facility’s primary circuit with chemically demineralized water has been successfully completed at the Leningrad NPP-2 site. This is one of the most important pre-launch operations when all nuclear power systems are set as operational ready.

‘This important governmental assignment has been completed ten days ahead of schedule and with perfect quality. We have confirmed the cleanliness of the internal equipment surfaces and the primary circuit pipelines, with the water in it being almost ideal. It’s at least 95% as transparent as the initial one. The primary circuit cleanliness will cater for reliable operation of technological systems and good quality of the production environment when the power bock is operational’, Alexander Belyaev, the chief engineer at the Leningrad NPP-2, said.

According to Alexey Volkov, the head of the reactor hall at the Leningrad NPP-2, the works were carried out using dummy assemblies installed in the reactor. The cleansing was held using ‘cold’ water, although that’s nothing more than a term: the primary circuit heat carrier gets up to 120 °С.

As a next step, the team will perform hydraulic tests for the 1st and 2nd reactor facility circuits followed by the preparations for the ‘hot trial’: this is when the equipment’s and the reactor facility systems’ working capacities are confirmed at design conditions.