On March 7, the specialists initiated loading dummy fuel assemblies (DFA) into the reactor of power unit No.2 of Belarus NPP (the General Designer and the General Contractor – Engineering Division of ROSATOM).
This process is a prerequisite and a kind of a dry run of the fuel load into the reactor, and includes, inter alia, handling of transport and process operations regarding the DFA movement from the special fresh fuel storage facility to the reactor building and confirmation of the refueling machine readiness.
Dummies are true copy of fuel assemblies (FA), having the same design in terms of weight, dimensions and materials, but do not contain nuclear fuel. They are intended for use during commissioning at the stage of cold and hot tests of the reactor plant.
“The start of DFA loading is a confirmation of the readiness of the reactor, transport and process equipment and its tooling, systems and main equipment of the reactor plant for the stage of cold and hot testing in order to check them for compliance with design characteristics and safety requirements, – said the vice president-director for Belarus NPP construction project of JSC ASE EC Vitaly Polyanin. – After loading all 163 DFA, specialists will complete the assembly of the reactor and, having received the appropriate permits, will proceed to the stage of hydraulic tests, which opens a huge cycle of mandatory and strictly regulated technologically complex processes carried out during the preparation of the power unit for physical start-up”.
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Belarus NPP having two VVER-1200 reactors with the total capacity of 2400 MW is being constructed in Ostrovets (the Republic of Belarus). The Russian III+ generation design that is fully compliant with the international standards and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety recommendations, has been selected for the first NPP in Belarus. The Belarus NPP Unit 1 has become the first Gen III+ unit in operation built abroad based on the Russian technologies.
