Five containers, 10 tons each, became the first bulky equipment installed at the auxiliary reactor building and one of the most important systems for the power block’s operation.

‘The container system is designed to accumulate and temporarily store liquid waste before it is recycled’, Alexey Volnov, chief engineer at the Kursk NPP-2, said. ‘We have improved the system for the VVER-TOI: optimized the storage space by reducing the number of containers, increasing the efficiency of the recycling, introducing cutting-edge technologies’.

The installation of containers by the OPEN-TOP methods (when the building has been constructed but it is still possible to install oversize equipment as there is no crown sheet) was performed by an AO ‘NIKIMT-Atomstroy’ branch, a part of the Rosatom Engineering Division. A crane was used to install the containers at their designed spot of -4.8 meters.

‘The premises housing the containers have to adhere to strict safety requirements. They are made of enforced concrete and will then be covered with stainless steel’, Alexey Volnov concluded.

The next stage will be to install the facility floors, following which the team will start working on coating the walls, the floors, installing the service sites and piping the containers – connecting the pipes, the valves, and the faucets.