GE Steam Power has delivered the first Arabelle steam turbine module for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey from its Belfort factory in France, 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.

Russian company Atomenergomash, part of state-owned Rosatom, one of the leading Russian power engineering companies, will own and operate Akkuyyu.

Andrey Nikipelov, Atomenergomash CEO, said: “For the first time ever, the enterprises of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division involved in the Akkuyu project, have started to produce turbine island equipment in accordance with European standards.

This is the outcome of successful strategic partnership between two heavy manufacturing giants – Rosatom and GE Steam Power. As the project was progressing, we set up an effective coordination between our companies, and we will certainly capitalise on this invaluable experience when developing our expertise as the supplier of both, nuclear and conventional islands.”

The manufacturing of the equipment began in June 2019. Thanks to the commitment and dedication of the Belfort factory team as well as the highest level of safety, GE was able to deliver the initial equipment four months ahead of schedule to Atomenergomash despite two French government-mandated lockdowns as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Frederic Wiscart, GE Steam Power senior executive of projects, said: “It is a significant milestone for our partner, AAEM, our customer, Atomenergomash, and our project and manufacturing team. This past year has been nothing if not challenging – and this first equipment delivery showcases the dedication of GE Steam Power team to continuously deliver on time quality products for our nuclear customers around the world.”

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, include a generator and deliver 1.2GW each of power.

The HIP is unique to GE’s Arabelle technology and allows for more output from any reactor type. It is also recognised for its high reliability rate of 99,96% over 400,000 operating hours.

In total, it is more than 20GW of CO₂-free energy that will be installed in the coming years thanks to GE Steam Power teams and its Arabelle steam turbine technology, consolidating the fleet to 53GW world-wide.