Westinghouse to Provide Passive Safety Systems to Slovenia's Krsko Nuclear Power Plant
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Systems Part of Severe Accident Management
BRUSSELS- Westinghouse Electric Company today announces that it has received two contracts from Nuklearna Elektrarna Krsko (NEK) to provide a passive containment dry-filter method (DFM) venting system and a passive autocatalytic recombiner hydrogen-control system at the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in Slovenia. The two systems enhance safety in the area of severe accident management.
Designed to provide additional measures for ensuring containment integrity, the two systems are part of the range of products and services Westinghouse offers to the global fleet of nuclear power plants that further enhance plant safety and help to mitigate events like that which occurred at Japan's Fukushimi Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant from occurring. The engineering, design, supply and installation of the two passive safety systems, including aerosol and iodine filter units, is scheduled to be complete by April 2015.
"We are proud of our long and steadfast commitment to the safe operation of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant," said Javier González, Westinghouse vice president and managing director, Southern Europe. "More generally, these contracts reflect the ongoing commitment of Westinghouse to provide the commercial nuclear power industry with products and services that further enhance plant safety and address post-Fukushima lessons learned."
The fully passive and maintenance-free DFM venting system can effectively depressurize reactor containment while minimizing the release of radioactivity into the environment. The dry filter method offers significant technical advantages over other methods, such as:
· proven high aerosol and gaseous iodine removal efficiencies;
· a robust and completely passive process control;
· high -temperature and high-radiation resistance of all filter components;
· small flow resistance of filter units;
· a simple but robust modular and passive design adaptable to site layout constraints and intended to withstand historic seismic events;
· no coolant or chemical supply needed during standby and operational modes, and;
· low maintenance requirements resulting in minimal operating costs.
The Westinghouse passive autocatalytic recombiner solution helps to control and mitigate the effects of hydrogen generation under severe accident conditions and includes completely passive equipment, little-to-zero maintenance costs, easy installation, ability to test multiple cartridges shortening associated work during outages, and robustness with respect to atmospheric conditions or seismic loads.
Westinghouse has been steadily providing the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant with myriad products and services ever since the Westinghouse-designed pressurized water reactor entered commercial operation at the beginning of 1983. The relationship was further strengthened in 2002 with a long-term nuclear fuel contract and in 2007 with a service agreement to provide services, turnkey projects, equipment and material/spare parts.
Today, in terms of safe and stable operation, the World Association of Nuclear Operators performance indicators place the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in the top 25 percent of nuclear power plants in operation.
Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation (TKY:6502), is the world's pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first pressurized water reactor in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa., USA. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants, including more than 50 percent of those in Europe.
Contact:
Hans Korteweg
Communications Manager
Westinghouse Europe,Middle East and Africa
+32 (0)2 645-7162 (office)
32 (0)479-75-13-60 (mobile)
kortewh@westinghouse.com
Scott Shaw
Public Relations Manager
Telephone: +1 412-374-6737
Email: shawsa@westinghouse.com
