OREANDA-NEWS. OMZ-Special Steels, part of OMZ group, successfully produced a 420-tonne bar of 15X2HMFA class one steel. The ingot will be used in production of a normal experiment active zone shell for the next generation VVER-TOI reactor. The reactor was designed by Atomenergoproekt, the main developer for nuclear plant projects. This is the first time an ingot of such size will be used in production of a reactor shell. Previous weight record was 360 tonnes.

R&D works for creation of a new technology were carried out at OMZ-Special Steels facilities to produce reactor shells for the VVER-TOI project and its implementation. Works are conducted in cooperation with OMZ-Izhora, Research and Production Association CNIITMASH and Central Research Institute of Structural Materials Prometey. Standard design of VVER is based on an optimized and data rich VVER power unit with an extended capacity of 1,255 megawatt equipped with an advanced security system.

At present time the ingot was delivered to the automated forging plant AKK-12000 for further forging works. For the first time the transportation of an ingot of 500 ?С temperature was carried out on motorized transport. To do that a special thermos container was developed and special machines were used.

It is planned to finalize production of an experiment active zone shell for the VVER-TOI reactor by June 2014.

An ingot of such weight is the second in the Izhora's metallurgy history. For the first time a giant ingot of 420 tonnes was casted at Izhorskiye Zavody in 1988.