OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2012.    On the 30th of August at 18:47 local time the reactor of power unit 1 of Bushehr NPP (Islamic Republic of Iran) was brought to 100% of design power in the framework of the first power program.

Vladimir Pavlov, Deputy Director of NIAEP for construction of NPP in Iran and Turkey, said this was the concluding stage of the power unit commissioning, during which the systems and equipment would be tested at the design power level. He emphasized that safety issues were the main priority of NPP construction, therefore, power build-up of the reactor was carried out in stages, with required tests of the plant equipment run to ensure its safe operation in future.

According to Head of Department for Construction of NPP in Iran at Atomstroyexport Igor Mezenin, who has led the Iranian site for more than five years, a unique facility that has no analogues in the world in terms of nuclear build has been brought to 100% power. “Our nuclear specialists have managed to integrate the Russian equipment into the civil structures built to a German design and, in addition, to use about 12 tons of the German equipment, he noted. “Huge work to assess conditions and applicability of the German equipment, buildings and structures was done. The architects had to develop and apply a number of smart engineering solutions and know-how to adapt the Russian technologies to already available capacities on the site.”

Therefore, Bushehr NPP project made use of the critical nuclear island equipment and turbine of the Russian design. With this, buildings of the plant were designed by Germans and, to install the Russian VVER reactor, the reactor hall layout had to be changed. Also, the turbine design was changed to make possible installing it in the turbine hall designed and built by Kraftwerk Union A.G.