The first Arabelle steam turbine module for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant has been delivered by GE Steam Power 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 4.8GW 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.
The manufacturing of the equipment began in June 2019. 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.
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 60m 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 turbine is recognised for its high reliability rate of 99,96% over 400,000 operating hours.
