Baltkran supplies Kazakhstan with special electrical traveling rail-mounted gantry crane for operation in temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel

Kaliningrad crane construction company Baltkran took part and won in a Kazakh ATOMPROM competition for designing, manufacturing and supplying 150t gantry crane to operate in a storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel near the area of dismantling nuclear power plant.

Historically Kaliningrad Company had a long-term business cooperation with Republic of Kazakhstan, and this cooperation still exists. The portal crane AHC - 500 "Sokol" type, which is now in operation, was supplied to port of Aktau in the beginning of the present year.

Now the case is different - it is a specialized crane, which is used for handling of big double-purpose containers in the region Aktau where nuclear power plant is being dismantled. Crane project is based on Baltkran immense experience in designing and manufacturing of cranes with lifting capacity of 200 t (while the weight of the crane is 212t). Such cranes were used in huge industrial construction sites in our country in 1973-1981, and abroad, in particular on Bratskaya Hydroelectric Power Station. Some of these cranes are now in operation, for example in Krasnoyarsk on BAMtunnelstroi Company.

According to the competition conditions lifting capacity of the crane was limited to 150 t, because every single handled container with spent nuclear fuel weights 140t. It was also necessary to fit the crane into the narrow working area, where the crane will operate. Moreover Baltkran presented a special program for the competition regarding the training of Kazakh personnel. This program include the whole scope of technical and scientific information in order to provide better crane operation, and a system of preventive maintenance service of the crane and its separate units.

Baltkran fulfilled all these conditions better than other competitors, because it was Baltkran who received this competitive order.

It's interesting that this project is financed by the US Department of Energy on the basis of the governmental agreement with the Republic of Kazakhstan.

50 year Service-life guarantee is provided for this crane. So for the first half a century this specialized and reliable crane will help Kazakh specialists to tackle the issues pertaining to nuclear power and elimination of waste from nuclear reactors.