A new agreement for the replacement of two Waste Gas Compressors at the Krško power plant (Slovenia) has been signed between the customer NEK and Ansaldo Nucleare, a few months after the completion of the BB2, a complex and multidisciplinary project in the safety field.
The new agreement, of the "turnkey" type, provides for a major upgrade on the plant: it will include the engineering and manpower necessary for all the activities of design, analysis, material procurement, production, civil works and transport, as well as unloading on-site, installation/assembly, supervision, required system test activities (start-up and performance) up to project completion.
Waste Gas Compressors are a key part of Krško's Nuclear Steam Supply System which collects, stores, analyzes and discharges radioactive fission gases. The system consists of a closed circuit with two compressors, two hydrogen catalytic recombiners, four gas decay tanks to store the fission products and two gas decay tanks for the shutdown and start-up service and for the discharge of gases. Thus, the system, and in particular also the Waste Gas Compressors, includes nuclear safety-related nuclear safety-related components that must meet ASME Section III requirements for Class 3 equipment.
A very important aspect is that the replacement of the two compressors will take place online, i.e., without interrupting the operation of the plant which will, therefore, remain active during the activities.
“We are honored that the customer has reconfirmed his trust in us and, above all, in our skills” says Giovanbattista Patalano, Senior Vice President Nuclear Markets & Sales. “For Ansaldo Nucleare it is essential to keep the Italian-Slovenian collaboration alive not only with our customer, but also with local suppliers who will contribute, as already happened in the past, to the project supply chain.”
Ansaldo Nucleare is a company of the Ansaldo Energia Group that covers all nuclear activities from the production of critical high-tech components to the design and construction of new builds, from decommissioning to advanced research on radwaste management, Fusion, IVth Generation plants and Small Modular Reactors.
