GE Steam Power has delivered the first Arabelle steam turbine module for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant from its Belfort factory in France. This is the first equipment delivered by GE for the project, and it was delivered four months ahead of schedule. GE’s full scope for Akkuyu includes all the major equipment for the nuclear power plant’s four turbine islands including the Arabelle steam turbines, the Gigatop 4 poles generators and the vacuum pumps in the turbine hall.
Akkuyu is Turkey’s first nuclear power plant and when completed, it will deliver 4.8 gigawatts (GW) of CO2 free electricity. At the time when there is a great drive for low carbon energy technologies, Turkey has decided to invest in carbon-free energy to meet its emission reduction targets.
Commenting on the event, Andrey Nikipelov, CEO of Atomenergomash, said: “For the first time ever, the enterprises of Rosatom’s Mechanical Engineering Division involved in the Akkuyu project, have started to produce turbine island equipment in accordance with European standards. This is the outcome of successful strategic partnership between two heavy manufacturing giants – Atomenergomash of Rosatom and GE. As the project was progressing, we set up an effective coordination between our companies, and we will certainly capitalize on this invaluable experience when developing our expertise as the supplier of both, nuclear and conventional islands.”
The manufacturing of the equipment began in June 2019. Thanks to the commitment and dedication of the factory team as well as the highest level of safety, GE was able to deliver the initial equipment four months ahead of schedule to Atomenergomash, part of Rosatom, despite the two government mandated lockdowns as a result of the global pandemic in 2020. To ensure the safety of its employees working on the factory floor, strong safety protocols were put in place including: social distancing whenever possible, the necessary PPE for safe work, including gloves, hydroalcoholic solutions and FFP2 masks for those in close proximity as well as additional cleaning of the equipment between shifts.
“It’s a significant milestone for our partner, AAEM, our customer, Atomenergomash, and our project and manufacturing team, said Frederic Wiscart, Senior Executive of Projects at GE Steam Power. “This past year has been nothing if not challenging – and this first equipment delivery showcases the dedication of GE Steam Power team to continuously deliver on time and on quality for our nuclear customers around the world.”
Each Arabelle steam turbine will include three modules: the high pressure/intermediate pressure (HIP) module, and two low pressures modules – in total, each Arabelle will be 60 meters long including generator and deliver 1.2GW each. The HIP is unique to GE’s Arabelle technology and allows for more output from any reactor type. In addition, the Arabelle is recognized for its high reliability rate of 99,96% over 400,000 operating hours.
In total, it’s more than 20 GW of CO2-free energy that will be installed in the coming years thanks to GE Steam Power teams and its Arabelle steam turbine technology, consolidating the fleet to 53 GW across the world.
