[UPDATED] Brazil's Eletronuclear said that Friday afternoon, November 11, notched the restart of concrete pouring at the Angra 3 nuclear plant construction project at the Angra facility on the country's coastline about 70 miles south of Rio de Janiero.
Preparations for restarting concreting began in February this year with the signing of the contract between Eletronuclear and the Agis consortium, comprising Ferreira Guedes, Matricial and ADtranz. Since then, the winning bidders have worked on preparing the construction site for the resumption of the project, which included setting up a concrete plant on site.
The project began in 1984, but was halted in 1986 even before construction began, according to the World Nuclear Association. The project was resurrected in 2006 with concrete pouring beginning in 2010. By 2015 domestic corruption and other factors put a halt to the project with the reactor 65 percent completed.
The country has two other nuclear reactors, Angra 1 and 2, which produce 3 percent of Brazil's electricity, which comes 80 percent from hydro power. Hydro power in Brazil, however, has been threatened by long-term drought, prompting a renewed interest in nuclear power.
Electronucular said it was worth noting that the quality of the concrete, both of the aggregated elements – such as sand, stone, water and cement – and of their proportion in the final mixture, the so-called trace, is subject to rigorous technical evaluation by Eletronuclear and the National Energy Commission. Nuclear (Cnen), which authorized the resumption of concreting.
Since September, when the concrete plant was inaugurated, until today, numerous field and laboratory tests have been carried out to guarantee the quality of the material used in construction.
The launching of the first concrete started the Angra 3 Critical Line Acceleration Plan, which aims to conclude the civil works of the main buildings of the plant. This includes the reactor building and other facilities linked to nuclear safety.
In addition, the execution of a relevant part of the electromechanical assembly is planned, such as the closing of the containment, a steel ball located inside the reactor building, and the installation of important equipment, such as the used fuel pool, the polar bridge and the crane of the semiportico.
With German technology, Angra 3 will generate 12 million megawatt hours per year, enough energy to supply residential consumption in the entire North region and almost the entire Midwest region of Brazil. The generation of Angra 1, 2 and 3 together will be equivalent to 60% of the energy consumption of the state of Rio de Janeiro and 3% of the country.
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