‘We continue working on the construction of the safety system for the 2nd power block replacing the existing power plant’, Viacheslav Fedyukin, the director of the Kursk NPP, said. ‘A melt trap is our national ‘know-how’ with regard to the off-design accident handling systems’.
It is important to note that a ‘melt trap’ consists of three pieces: a framework, a cantilever truss, and a slide plate. The reactor building already houses the ‘melt trap’ framework filled with special material (primarily made of ferric and aluminium oxides, this filling material is solved in the molten core material to reduce its power density).
The reactor vault has been circled at the height of 7 meters. This is where the cantilever truss was installed. The main designation of a cantilever truss is to facilitate amenities – water supply, heat removal, ventilation, passages for measuring instruments and for melt trap device examinations. Another idea behind the cantilever truss is for it to serve as a basis for other installations, such as the slide plate and the dry reactor shielding.