A thrust truss is a piece of the reactor vault equipment designed for durable fixation of a reactor vessel. A truss is a welded steel construction with a diameter of over 7 meters and a height of around one meter.

‘The installation of the thrust truss is one of the key milestones in 2019’, Rostislav Kimlik, the deputy chief engineer of the capital construction department and the head of construction control at the Kursk NPP-2, said. ‘The equipment has been installed into the reactor vault at the +16.5 mark using a DEMAG crane’.

The thrust truss was delivered to the construction site in pieces, which was followed by its top assembly. The total weight of the equipment is 25,760 kilograms. Once the truss is installed at its design position, the vault will be filled with special concrete, after which the team will start constructing the emergency localization zone adjacent to the reactor vault.

According to Alexey Smirnov, the deputy director of the Kursk NPP-2 internal construction resources management at EC ASE, the installation was completed ten days ahead of schedule. ‘It will enable us to both conduct works in the first power blocks reactor vault and start the installation of the melt trap at the second one ahead of schedule’.