Russian contractor insists on the July 10th installation incident, said First Deputy General Director of the Rosatom corporation Alyaksandr Lakshyn.
The “emergency” at the storage area of the reactor pressure vessel took place “during the lifting work to move it in the horizontal plane” conducted on the night of 9 July 10 by one of the subcontractors.
The reactor case was being moved at a height of 4 meters, when the crane broke down. The case had been secured with a warp. For this reason, the body was hanging over an hour until it “touched the ground.”
“All this time the slant was gradually increasing and eventually led to the fact that the reactor vessel slipped on the rafters and hung diagonally touching the ground. The whole event was being filmed on video and the load on the crane hook was being checked. Even when it touched the ground the main production of weight of the reactor case – more than two thirds – was suspended by the crane. Thus using words such as “hit the ground” or “dropped” is wrong, it misleads people and distorts the essence of what happened, as the speed of the case movement did not exceed the walking speed,” assured Lakshyn.
Builders who are guilty of the incident had been punished, assured Lokshin.
“Subcontractors suffered appropriate penalties, and its employees, guilty of this violation, were suspended from duty and will never be allowed to work on our nuclear facilities.”
The representative of “Rosatom” stressed that the reactor housing had not been damaged.
“As for the housing, there were no significant impacts that could lead to a change in its properties.
The worst damage it sustained was the factory paint being worn off the body after rubbing a metal sling.
Readings and calculations clearly show that the maximum load on the body was much smaller than the permissible load and one and a half times lower than even that which the reactor constantly sustains during normal operation for sixty years.
We are absolutely convinced that technical obstacles to the use of the body do not exist. But we know that with safety and reliability being priorities, another important condition for the development of nuclear energy is public acceptability. We assume that the customer may decide not use this case to end a wave of speculation and excitement among the population.
If this decision is made, we are ready to consider it, as we understand the special importance of public acceptance at the construction site of the first nuclear power plant in the country. The first unit will then get the reactor vessel intended for the second unit. Its production is now completed. But the decision of the customer will, of course, lead to some shift in the schedule of the unit construction,” he said.
On July 25, media reported that during the test procedure on July 10, the 334-ton reactor vessel fell from a height of 2 to 4 meters. After a long silence, the Belarus Ministry of Energy confirmed the rumors.
This was not the first incident on the Belarusian NPP this year. Over the past three months, independent media have reported three accidents at the NPP construction site. In mid-April, through the haste in the execution of the order, workers used too much concrete. The structure broke down and lead to the collapse of the future nuclear service building pillar.
