Scanclimber helps in the construction of Belarus’ first nuclear facility

Scanclimber Oy is successfully serving in the construction of cooling towers for Belarus’ first nuclear power plant at Ostrovets, Grodno region. The project includes two 170 m cooling towers. Once completed, it will hold the record for construction hoists at such height ever installed in Belarus.

History

A nuclear power plant was planned for Belarus since the 1980’s but a series of events like Chernobyl nuclear disaster, etc. put the development plan on hold till late 2007. Finally in mid-2008, the plan for the nuclear power plant was officially approved and started. After a thorough feasibility study, the first concrete was poured on 6th November, 2013. Construction for the second unit started eight months later with construction of each unit expected to take about five years. The approved plan for the nuclear power plant included two units with total capacity of up to 2 400 MW of electricity.

Challenges

The planned structure of the nuclear power plant consisted of two units and each unit would be equipped with a Scanclimber hoist. The hoists will be able to reach the towers’ maximum height of 170 metres. The project faced certain challenges concerning the installation of the hoists on the site.

• The maximum height on which hoist installation was needed was not easy to achieve as the hoist was erected in a curved configuration. In addition, the anchoring for the mast was a challenging task because the mast height increases as the concrete forming work progresses upwards.
• There are dominant western winds at the site which could potentially make the hoist unstable at such a height and promote the risk of accident.

The combination of these obstacles made the project quite challenging. Considering all such factors, the Scanclimber SC2032F-65 was chosen from the available fleet for assisting the construction.

Some unique project features

There are certain unique features in this mega project.

• The plant cooling towers are built using a sliding-form method and the hoist was further erected as the structure was being built up.
• Usually hoists are installed at new building structures which are built to 1/3 of their total height. In this case, the hoist was mounted when the structure was 50 m high and from then onwards, the hoist served in the building of the tower to its maximum height.
• After completion of the project, it will be a record for construction hoists at such a height in Belarus.