MOSCOW. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Russia's Atomstroyexport company has completed another stage of testing Iran's first nuclear power plant (NPP) Bushehr, the company's press service reports.
It tested the air-tight containment system that blocks the escape of radioactive substances into the environment in case of failures in the first circuit of the NPP and simultaneously protects the equipment of the first circuit from outside effects.
The containment system in Bushehr is part of the integrated equipment delivered to the facility by the previous contractor - Germany's Kraftwerk Union (now Siemens). Its distinctive feature is a steel encasement (a 56-meter ball) which contains the main equipment of the first circuit - the reactor, steam generators, the main circulation pumps and pressure compensators.
It was the first time that Russian experts built and tested such a system because Russian NPPs employ systems of a different type (concrete structures coated with steel sheets).