The 350-tonne reactor pressure vessel of Akkuyu NPP Unit 3 was placed in its design position in January 2025 using the open-top method with a heavy-lift crane, completing the unit's reactor installation.
A major installation milestone was reached at Unit 3 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in January 2025. The reactor pressure vessel — 11.45 metres long, 5.7 metres wide and weighing 350 tonnes — was placed in its design position using the open-top method with a heavy-lift crane, completing the reactor installation at the unit. As the main component in which the nuclear fuel is housed and the chain reaction is sustained under control, the reactor pressure vessel counts among a plant's most critical items of equipment (Source).
What does the open-top method offer?
According to a World Nuclear News report dated 3 January 2025, the open-top method allows heavy equipment to be lowered into position by crane from above before the reactor building's dome is closed. Large components can thus be brought into the building without side openings, the installation schedule can proceed with parallel work streams, and civil construction and equipment erection can advance simultaneously.
Manufactured at Atommash, delivered by sea in November 2023
As reported by NucNet, the reactor pressure vessel was manufactured at the Volgodonsk branch (Atommash) of AEM-Technologies, the machine-building division of Rosatom, and had been delivered to the construction site by sea in November 2023; it was kept in protected on-site storage for more than a year until installation (Source). Moving components of this scale from factory to site over long sea routes, and preserving them in on-site storage for extended periods, is cited among the examples that illustrate the planning depth of the project logistics discipline.
Quality inspection by Turk Loydu and the NDK
Following the installation, quality control was carried out by specialists of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC together with experts from the independent inspection body Turk Loydu and Turkey's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NDK). In nuclear projects, independent inspection means that the conformity of an installation with its design documentation is verified by parties independent of the operator. The inspections confirmed that the vessel had been set in its design position correctly (Source).
Fresh fuel for Unit 2 on site
According to a January 2025 report by Nuclear Engineering International, fresh nuclear fuel assemblies produced for Unit 2 at TVEL's Novosibirsk plant were received into the on-site fresh fuel storage facility during the same period (Source). The Akkuyu site thus entered 2025 with the reactor installation completed at Unit 3 and fuel preparations advancing for Unit 2 — developments that received broad coverage in the international trade press as an illustration of work progressing simultaneously across multiple units.