PROTOTYPE OF TEST BENCH FOR IODONE FILTERS

Leonid Katukhin, General Director of “InnoInvest” managing company, never complains about life. Yes, there can be difficulties. However, in our country it is hard for everybody to do business. “We need to work in the conditions that exist”, says Katukhin, “there will be no others”. “InnoInvest” manages four small innovation businesses. Their activities are related to nuclear industry, medicine and food production. In all areas, there are successes, but the most significant ones are in the area of protection against radioactive emissions.

IODINE ISSUE

“When ten years ago we began to work with filters for nuclear industry, we only had 3% of the market”, says Leonid Katukhin. “Now we have 49%. We manufacture all product line of filters applied in the Russian nuclear industry. Those are 26 filters. 22 of them are our designs.”

Filters from Obninsk work all over the country and abroad. The new Russian icebreakers “Arctic” and “Siberia” are equipped with them, they are also sent to the “Urals” icebreaker under construction. And they are installed “at home” – last year the reactor in the Institute of Physics and Chemistry was equipped with new iodine filters.

“AeroFilter” is the only company in the industry having its own test bench where the filters are checked. The competitors also have to use it, as the customers - which is quite understandable - require expert reports on reliability of equipment. However, there was a problem – for a long time it was unknown how to test the operation of iodine filters. According to Katukhin, several institutes were involved in the search for solution – Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Obninsk Research Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Novosibirsk University. The scientists offered an idea, and “AeroFilter” realized it – the prototype has been already operating. Next year the new industrial test bench for iodine filters will start working.

Different safety systems are applied at NPP. They also plan to install filters for the case of beyond design basis accidents. It is far from the fact that they will have to be used one day, but better to be safe than sorry. Such filters were designed in Obninsk under the management of “InnoInvest”. They will be first installed in 2018 in Novovoronezh NPP-2. There also novelties in other areas.

CLEANLINESS ISSUE

“Omitex” Research & Production enterprise managed by “InnoInvest” is present in the medicine market stably and for a long time, having supplied several thousand waste disinfection facilities to domestic hospitals. Under the law, all medical waste (syringes, bandages, blood transfusion systems etc.) shall be disinfected prior to disposal. It is done in SHF units designed and manufactured in Obninsk. But not every hospital can afford them. Therefore, “Omitex” had designed a large and powerful facility for collective disinfection centers. The process of obtaining permits to manufacture the new SHF facilities is currently in progress, and in 2018, it is planned to start it up.

It turns out that super high-frequency radiation for disinfection purposes can be applied in absolutely unexpected areas. “Lenta” supermarket chain was interested in such facilities. There are plastic trays with goods in the stores. It is natural that they become dirty. Currently they disinfect the trays with steam jets. It is highly likely that SHF installations will fit this function much better.

 

Source: “NGREGION” newspaper
By Alexey Sobachkin