First Nuclear Agreement for Alstom's Russian Joint Venture

Alstom Atomenergomash LLC signed an agreement with Atomenergoproekt for the engineering of the turbine generator package and turbine hall equipment, based on Alstom’s ARABELLE™ technology, that will equip the Seversk nuclear power plant in the Tomsk region, Siberia.

This is the first agreement signed by the joint venture established in 2007 between Alstom and OAO Atomenergomash, a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned Atomenergoprom. The client, Atomenergoproekt, is one of the key engineering companies of Rosatom, the Russian nuclear energy state corporation, and has designed most nuclear power plants in Russia, Eastern Europe and the CIS. The Seversk NPP Project is a two-unit power plant with a total capacity of 2,400 MW (2 x1,200 MW) to be constructed as of 2010 as part of the "AES-2006” Project*, in compliance with the Russian Federal Target Programme.

Alstom Atomenergomash LLC was established in order to equip the turbine islands of nuclear power plants constructed in Russia under the Federal Target Programme, with equipment based on Alstom’s half-speed technology ARABELLE™. The turbines produced by the joint venture will also be supplied to nuclear power plants outside of Russia when based on Russian nuclear reactor technology. Alstom Atomenergomash has manufacturing facilities in Podolsk, near Moscow, where it also has its headquarters, and an engineering centre in St Petersburg.

The ARABELLE™ turbine is central to Alstom’s nuclear technology. Widely acknowledged as the best in the market, the "half-speed” turbine offers outstanding power output (1,000 to 1,800 MW), efficiency and reliability, using a specific architecture and the exclusive welded-rotor technology developed by Alstom Power Systems, used on all Alstom gas and steam turbines. This technology ensures unparalleled efficiency, resistance to corrosion, longevity (60 years), and optimal maintenance, along with minimal costs and call-out times.

Philippe Joubert, President of Alstom Power Systems said: "This agreement demonstrates that our joint venture with Atomenergomash based on the ARABELLE™ half-speed technology has now successfully established itself as a key player on the Russian nuclear market”.

*AES-2006 (or NPP-2006) project is the name of a standard nuclear power plant with a 1200 MW VVER reactor, intended for implementation both in Russia and abroad.

(Source: Welt Online)