The failure of Alexei Mordashov and optimism of Rosatom

Power Machine’s steam turbines, which are made both for domestic nuclear power plants and for foreign ones, continue to be alarming.
These units have some flaws, which is why China has already refused the products of Alexei Mordashov. The poor quality of Power Machine steam turbines has been reported by India.

Rosatom State Corporation maintains a peppy mine in a bad game: it phoned all over the world about its breakthrough technologies, and promised dozens of foreign countries the technology of the 22nd century. Proprietary to obscene nuclear reactor generation 3+ VVER-1200. And the reference sample of this miracle, not having worked for 15 days, made an emergency at the sixth block of the Novovoronezh nuclear station in November 2016.

And he turned half of the engine room. The Moscow Post reported about all this in the first part of the investigation "Turbine of the second" freshness "from the oligarch Mordashov."

What exactly happened in New Voronezh in the fall of 2016? The turbogenerator exploded, which was heard at Power Machines PJSC. The State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom was silent for almost 3 weeks, like a fish, then something inaudibly mumbled about the "short circuit" ... This was reported by the newspaper Versiya.

Some trouble also occurred at the first power unit of the Leningrad NPP-2, which was included in the network at the end of 2018. And there, too, the Mordashov turbine "butted and kicked." The turbine was pacified, launched again ...

It turns out that equipment for nuclear power plants is not clear how. And from what? Otherwise, why so many complaints? But the "captains" of the Novovoronezh and Leningrad NPPs are silent, but partners in the PRC, India, and Finland reared up. Comrades Finns express their dissatisfaction with the quality of work. Comrades from Turkey also issue their complaints. South Africa and Vietnam generally refused the services of Rosatom. Something has not been possible so far for the Russian "peaceful" atom to conquer the planet.

The Moscow Post correspondent is trying to figure this out.

Night cotton and a big panic

The sixth unit at the Novovoronezh NPP with turbines and turbogenerators of Power Machines was launched with great fanfare. One can only guess how many budget billions the Rosatom Communications Department spent on meeting this “Santa Claus” ... Even the new head of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev (creature of Sergei Kiriyenko) came to New Voronezh. He famously launched a new power unit at 100% power. Likhachev called the launch of the sixth power unit in New Voronezh "a great success for Russian nuclear technologies." The newspaper "Version" wrote about this in detail.

A few hours later, an emergency happened.

On the 6th block, in a turbine workshop, a generator burned out, which cannot be restored. The transformer exploded, all the electrics burned out. A huge sum will now be required for dismantling, all the commissions work at the station, the situation is emergency. This was written by a blogger on the Activatika portal.

The turbine hall was half destroyed ...

And shortly before the state of emergency, the media wrote about its transcendental safety of a new power unit with a breakthrough reactor.

“If the most reliable unit, according to Rosatom, was able to work at full load for only two weeks,” the well-known expert on nuclear energy problems Andrei Ozharovsky marveled, “this can greatly puzzle foreign customers of such power units in Belarus, Finland and Turkey. And it was lucky that the accident at the unit with the VVER-1200 reactor occurred in the electric, and not in the reactor part.
The latest power unit, which was advertised as "the most reliable," has not demonstrated reliability in practice. And if there is a design defect (and the burned generator is completely new, like all other equipment), then, as nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovsky believes, it will be necessary to change the generators for all power units at other nuclear power plants, in particular at the Leningrad and Belorussian NPPs.

But I would like to know how all this equipment is doing? And why did the Mordashov generator suddenly explode at a new power unit?

The answers to these questions can be found in the reviews of employees (both former and present) of Power Machines PJSC.

Goodbye, Sex Machines

Five minutes to get acquainted with these reviews is enough to understand that something is wrong with the companies of Mr. Mordashov. Reviews are angry and sometimes just angry. Employees among themselves call the brainchild of Mordashov "Sex Machines".

Anonymous writes

“Before the collapse of the USSR, he went to work as a holiday. There were many orders and it was interesting to work, for one he raised his technical level.

I remember all this with pleasure. Now come the young talents - managers, without understanding anything in production, they blow their nostrils and fan their fingers. There are very few orders, there is a continuous marriage of rotors. They don’t want to study, they want to command and get a bag of money. They come from the street, and they give the same salary as a worker of 30-40 years old. The administration constantly violates the Collective Agreement and the Labor Code by redoing it for themselves. They seem to want to cut as many employees as possible. And now there is no one to work - you are both a Shvets, a reaper, and a dude a dude, but only one salary. I do not advise you to get a job in Power Machines. "

Writes "Not an Employee of the Sexes":

"metallurgists killed two factories by joining Polovye Mashiny, the rest are on their way. Idiotic monitoring, cameras everywhere, house-2 just rests. Breathalyzers and metal detectors at all checkpoints, as if hard workers carry tons of metal. Problem-solving boards are hung on all walls, but there’s no sense in it. On the board you need to write only what is interesting to read to the authorities. The brainchild of someone’s inflamed brain. Obligatory work in a helmet, and no one cares whether it is convenient for a hard worker to climb into a machine. Organization of production is not even at zero, and in negative Toyan ".

Anonymous writes

"Recently, the company has increased staff turnover. Some of the same vacancies appear in two weeks. Sheer rudeness, which is considered the norm here. The company has become sloppy. They want to make a gas turbine, this is unlikely to happen, given that steam turbines for NPPs they do it in one place. Do not believe me, ask the director of the Leningrad NPP (regarding the turbine of power unit No. 5). "

Now we’ll go to the city of Sosnovy Bor, where the Leningrad NPP-1 (in operation of 3 Chernobyl-type nuclear reactors) and the Leningrad NPP-2, on which VVER-1200 operates, are operating. The turbogenerator and turbines for the Leningrad NPP-2 were made by Power Machines PJSC. Reviews from NPP employees on these units are the most negative ...

The construction of Leningrad NPP-2 began in 2007. Experts criticized several directions at once, but no one could even imagine that the main problems would begin with turbines and a turbogenerator. And also at the construction site an emergency started for an emergency.

In July 2011, the reinforcement cage collapsed at the construction site of the first power unit. As early as the end of May, builders discovered problems at the construction site, saw that the reinforcement began to “dance”, but did nothing. And this was not the first case of collapse! In January 2011, a 14-meter reinforcing wall collapsed. It’s good that there were no casualties.

In July 2015, a 70-ton block of protective tubes of a nuclear reactor fell from a 20-meter-high construction site at a construction site. And this block fell into the pool of exposure of irradiated nuclear fuel. This expensive building was not subject to restoration. Recall that at that time the group "Titan-2" of the infamous businessman Grigory Naginsky was already the general contractor at the construction site.

In February 2016, it became known about the open appeal of the builder of the Leningrad NPP-2 Viktor Aleinikov. An experienced nuclear scientist spoke out loud about serious problems associated with the violation of construction and installation technologies during the construction of a nuclear facility.

The appeal of Viktor Aleinikov was received by the Committee on Natural Resources of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, as well as the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region. For some reason, they didn’t sort it out seriously, and the Titan-2 company also sued Viktor Aleinikov.

Victor Aleinikov drew attention to the poor-quality welding work on the pipeline. It is necessary to do complex heat treatment of welds to get rid of their fragility. To do this, they need to be heated to several hundred degrees, and then cooled for several hours. This is a very responsible, delicate work. Atomic engineer Aleinikov repeatedly noted that the technology is being violated, the seam cooling mode is not maintained. Aleinikov pointed out that the thermists who were involved in the processing of welds did not have the necessary qualifications. Aleinikov’s appeal about flagrant violations during the construction of a new unit at the Leningrad NPP-2 was also sent to Rostekhnadzor.

The response from Rostekhnadzor quickly enough came that the information that the commission checked was not confirmed. And how could it be confirmed if representatives of ... the company of Gregory Naginsky "Titan-2" were included in the commission?

It turns out that the violators checked themselves?

What did they build as a result, when problematic turbines and a turbogenerator came from Power Machines, the workers, by the way, talk about substandard parts on these units, and Naginsky's Titan-2 firm generally drives solid trash?

The appeal of Aleinikov, who was soon forced to leave Russia because he received threats, speaks in great detail of all violations on the construction of a new block in Sosnovy Bor.


- The probability of accidents after such construction will be very high, the well-known expert on nuclear energy Oleg Bodrov is sure. - It has long been established that in the event of a serious release from nuclear power plants, dominant winds will be directed towards St. Petersburg. And at a wind speed of 10 m per second in an hour the radioactive cloud will reach the border of St. Petersburg, and in two hours it can cover the whole city. And for such a period it is simply impossible to take measures to protect the city, in which more than 5 million people live.

What to expect?

Recall some figures about which perhaps neither the oligarch Mordashov nor the owner of the offshore Naginsky know: 40 km to the border of St. Petersburg. To the EU countries - Estonia - 70 km, Finland - 100 km.

But here the director of the Leningrad NPP Vladimir Pereguda is in a kind of euphoria:

- None of the existing nuclear power plants in the world is equipped with a similar configuration of safety systems like ours! The International Atomic Energy Agency did not have a single question for us ...

But in vain!

Recall that the Chernobyl-type reactors are operating at the old nuclear power plant, the Power Machines units are at the power unit of the new nuclear power plant, and there are a lot of complaints about them. But why the director of the Leningrad NPP Vladimir Pereguda, knowing the situation, everywhere tells "tales" about the super-reliability of products from Mordashov?

Recall that the project is being promoted at the international level: VVER-1200 is being built in Belarus, Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh. And they plan to build in Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Uzbekistan.

From the point of view of the Rosatom state corporation, one cannot cast a shadow over the wattle fence and throw stones at the VVER-1200 “garden”: then China will take the palm of the Russian Federation, which, incidentally, also created its own 3+ generation reactor. And this reactor works without failures.

Do they junk nuclear facilities?

In the old days, when the Atommash plant (Rostov Region), Izhora Plants, the Leningrad Metal Plant worked, a lot of high-quality equipment was given out to the mountain. Izhora Plant could produce 4 sets of equipment for VVER-1000 and 2 sets of equipment for VVER-440 per year.

Atommash annually issued 4 sets of equipment for VVER-1000. The Leningrad Metal Plant built 3-4 turbines per year.

What today? Atomic scientists give the following figures:
Izhora Plants is capable of producing only one set of VVER-1000 per year. Leningrad Metal Plant - one turbine for VVER-1000 (1200). Atommash was closed for a long time after bankruptcy. He began to work and produce products, but what exactly and in what quantities does this flagship of nuclear engineering produce?

But it is only known for certain that for a number of years old sets of equipment were supplied to nuclear facilities, since the Atommash plant produced about 11-12 sets for nuclear plants before its closure. Part of this equipment was sent to Lukashenko in Belarus. Old, rusty parts went to the construction of the Ostrovets NPP near Grodno. The Kalinin nuclear power station received its part of the "antiques".

It is known that Power Machines PJSC make high-speed turbines for nuclear power plants. But these are also turbines from the last century too! Moreover, poor quality. That is why China refused Mordashov's turbine equipment. And now the Chinese themselves want to put new blocks at the TianVan NPP. According to unofficial information, at least one of the first five turbines of VVER-1000 power units (the first 5 were delivered: 2 to China, 2 to India and 1 to Iran), after delivery from Russia and installation, had vibrations exceeding permissible. It is said that the turbine shaft was crooked. This caused great concern for the customer. But in the end, everything seemed to be settled.

India for a long time did not dare to speak out loud about the poor-quality equipment of Power Machines, but finally made a statement.

And new projects - Akkuyu NPP, Hanhikivi-1 NPP, Paks-2 NPP, Ed-Dabaa NPP - will not be equipped with Mordashov turbines. All these facilities will receive a low-speed Arabel turbine made in France.

Atomic scientists say that in addition to Power Machine turbines, unreliable Power Machine generators, T3B, receive many complaints. They are the ones that go to the VVER-1200 blocks. Turbogenerators do not reach the capacity of 1200 MW 20-50 MW.

And it was precisely such a turbogenerator that bumped at the sixth block of the Novovoronezh NPP ... Rosatom shut up the emergency.

Recall that the company of Alexei Mordashov is one of the main contractors of Rosatom State Corporation, the main customer for the construction of nuclear plants in 22 countries. And if in 2016 the portfolio of orders of Power Machines PJSC, mainly foreign, amounted to 5.5 billion dollars, then by the end of 2018, the portfolio grew to 6 billion dollars. And, thanks to Rosatom, the company is fulfilling orders in foreign markets. But India confused all the cards: she took and declared defective units. Rosatom was not at a loss here either: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting our country these days. And the press is already reporting that it is Russia that will build all 12 new blocks in the homeland of Gandhi.

And the last one. The Moscow Post, after it was reported that India could exchange Russian turbines for Japanese ones, asked Nina Dementzova, the head of the Atomstroyexport IC press service, to comment on the situation with PJSC Power Machines turbines.

Ms. Dementzova remained silent for almost a week, but then sent an answer. We quote: “At the Kudankulam NPP site, all 6 units will be equipped with equipment (more precisely, 4 units will be completed, and 2 will already be operational) of Power Machines. At the same time, customer satisfaction is a priority for Rosatom State Corporation. We are always ready to hear suggestions of our partners, and we believe that customer focus is one of our market advantages.The competencies of Rosatom in the development and delivery of nuclear island equipment, key for nuclear power plants, are the leading in the world. As for other systems, in particular different equipment, different options are possible if our customer expresses his wishes ... "

It turns out that they do not like these units - will we put others? But there are no others!