The preparatory activities for annealing of the reactor vessel metal are started at the ANPP in the framework of the contract concluded with the Rusatom Service JSC.

The representatives of the Novovoronezhatomenergoremont company, the branch of the Atomenergoremont JSC, have been at the ANPP since November 24, 2020, to participate in the activities aimed at assembling the facility for remedial thermal treatment (annealing) of the ANPP Unit 2 reactor vessel metal. Annealing is the most effective method of metal recovery. With use of annealing facility the reactor vessel is heated up to 475 degrees Celsius, held up to 150 hours, and after that slow cooling down takes place. This process allows restoring the initial performance properties of the reactor metal for 80-85%.

This technology of annealing was successfully applied at many WWER-440 NPPs. During the ANPP 2021 scheduled outage the reactor annealing will be implemented securely facilitating the Unit 2 safety improvement and life extension.