OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2012.  The reactor building dome is being assembled and installed in stages at Novovoronezh Phase II unit 1, Russian nuclear company Rosatom has said.

The two power units being built at the second phase of the Novovoronezh site in western Russia will be AES-2006 VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors. They are expected to come into operation in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Construction of the unit 1 began in June 2008 and today Rosatom announced the first ring of its reactor dome had been installed by crane. With a diameter of 44 metres, the first ring was 7.6 metres high. Two more layers will make up the remainder and complete the top 10.0 metres of the building. In total the dome will weigh some 400 tonnes and form part of the reactor's double containment structure.