A new piece of hardware was used for the first time during the recent maintenance works at the Kursk NPP: It was an equipment designed to extract fragments of graphite (UIFG-92). During the repair process, dust, chips, particles of graphite of various shapes and sizes get into the gaps between the graphite blocks when removing the technological channels. New equipment was developed in order to clean these gaps.

"This graphite fragments extraction device is unique. It was developed by our long time partner, “Prolog” from Obninsk. Previously, it took about one eight-hour shift to clear one joint of graphite blocks; now, with the help of UIFG-92, the operation lasts only 15 minutes," - Vyacheslav Fedyukin, director of the Kursk NPP, explained when describing the advantages of the new equipment. - "The device in this case has the efficiency of the entire enterprise. Its use will help to reduce dose load on personnel, cut temporary peformance losses, which will reduce repair time. And most importantly, it will ensure safe, reliable operation of the power unit".

The graphite fragment extraction device is a module located on the rod, which includes a gripper for graphite blocks, a radiation-resistant TV camera, a suction pipe and a blower module. It works with the participation of only two people - an operator and a slinger. After installation on the cell, the operator guides the module to the lock of the graphite column, lifts the required block by 120 mm with a special grip. The space between the graphite blocks is blown with air, the graphite particles are sucked up by the module like a vacuum cleaner. Then the graphite column is lowered to its original place, and the UIFG-92 is removed from the cell.

The new device for extracting graphite fragments is supposed to be used during repairs at all power.