OREANDA-NEWS. On 14 August 2009 was announced, that OMZ (Uralmash-Izhora Group) (RTS: OMZZ; LSE: OMZD; OTC: UHMVY), a leading heavy machinery company with assets located in Russia and the Czech Republic, announced today that its Izhorskiye Zavody unit has successfully completed acceptance tests to a transportation locking system for the second power unit of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), India. This is the second transportation locking system produced by the company for this customer, the first having been shipped in September 2008.

The system incorporates a hermetically sealed camera designed to protect power plant personnel and the environment from radioactivity during the reloading of nuclear fuel and for the entry and removal of equipment during planned repairs of the power unit.

A rail guided trolley with a container for nuclear fuel moves inside the camera. An automated management system with hydraulic drive opens the external gate. When the trolley with its radioactive load enters the lock, the external gate is closed hermetically. Then the mechanism opens an internal gate, and the trolley moves to the reactor.

The unit is 14 meters long; its diameter is 9 meters and its weight is 280 tons.

The tests were successful. Representatives were in attendance from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), Atommashexport OJSC, Directorate for Construction of NPPs in India of Atomstroiexport CJSC, Bezopasnost Federal State Unitary Enterprise and Izhorskiye Zavody.

The equipment will be shipped to St. Petersburg sea port soon. Shipping the lock is itself a unique operation because of the unit’s sheer size. The lock will be disassembled into a number of sections, transported by road to Izhora River estuary by special carriers and then shipped by barge. The road route will have to cross an electric railway. Special rail cars will raise overhead power lines. After delivery to the sea port, the lock will be shipped on to the customer in India.