ZAO Infotech Baltika completed the contract with OAO Izhorskiye Zavody to deliver the pressure vessel for the 3rd power unit of Rostov NPP under construction. The reactor vessel VVER-1000 was manufactured at Izhorsky plant, its weight makes 322 tons, length – 11 meters, width – 5.6 meters, and height – 5.7 meters.
Keen-Mark Group’s fleet was used to transport the reactor. For the vehicles to travel along the highways, turn points of the roads were extended with roadsides reinforced. This work was done by construction company OOO Nevsky. They also performed jetty maintenance activities – from this jetty the nuclear reactor vessel was loaded onto the barge. For the jetty maintenance, diving inspection of the Neva water area was necessary to ensure required safety while setting the barge on the sand bed (18 by 40 meters). Vodoroy company was involved in diving operations. Error of the sand bed level was about 5 cm over the entire levelled surface area.
This transport consisted of several stages. On May 6-7, the specialized platforms carrying the reactors crossed the railways. After that, the pressure vessel travelled to Izhorskiye Zavody’s cargo jetty in the village of Ust-Slavyanka where it was loaded on barge-2033 using self-propelled modular trailer Goldhofer in combination with ballast rigs. On May 27, the reactor vessel was taken through the inland waterways to Atommash special jetty in Volgodonsk. Shipment of equipment involved tug boat “Aleksandr Obukhov” and RO-RO barge 2033 (North-Western Shipping Company). Project management was effected by Volgo-Baltic Logistic.
The next day, the reactor was reloaded onto Goldhofer SPMT and delivered to Rostov nuclear power plant on May 29, 2013. As per the master schedule of the nuclear plant construction, start-up of the 3rd power unit of Rostov NPP is scheduled for the end of 2014.