JSC Mashinostroitelny Zavod (Elektrostal, Moscow Region) December 12 signed acceptance records for a new process equipment, i.e. an automated line for soft placement of uranium pellets in molybdenum pallets and a rig for fuel rods bundling in VVER-1000 assemblies.
According to the Head of the Central Laboratory for Automation and Mechanization of the plant Yuri Shulman, the first system helps to avoid chips and deformation of pellets before their transportation for sintering. Its implementation has become the next stage of pursuing the integrated approach to automation of the pellet production at JSC MSZ and an essential condition for the transition to dry pressing of pellets.
The bench for fuel bundle assembling, which has been designed and installed by the plant’s specialists, has become a part of the automated complex being developed in the Assembly Shop of JSC MSZ. The facility features a higher (as compared to the foreign analogues) speed of assembly and capability of bundling fuel rods in the 8-grid skeleton – the operation no one has mastered so far. Employees of the Central Laboratory for Automation and Mechanization of JSC MSZ who designed the bundling bench have also developed unique software for this facility.
Shop Head Ashot Grigiriants said “this bench is at the level of world’s analogues and meet highest requirements for product quality.” Technical solutions used in the bundling bench allow JSC MSZ to start series fabrication of fuel assemblies for Temelin NPP (Czech Republic) as planned for the coming years. TVEL Corporation won the related fuel supply tender in 2006.
SOURCE: TVEL
DATE: December 17, 2007