Prototype of a test bench for iodine filters

Leonid Katukhin, CEO of the management company InnoInvest, never complains about life. Yes, there are difficulties. But it's not easy for anyone to do business in our country. "We have to work with the conditions we have," says Katukhin. "There will be no other conditions." InnoInvest manages four small innovative enterprises. They are related to the nuclear industry, medicine, and food production. There have been successes in all areas, but particularly significant ones have been achieved in the field of protection against radioactive emissions.

THE IODINE PROBLEM

“When we started working with filters for the nuclear industry ten years ago, we owned only 3% of the market,” says Leonid Katukhin. “Now we own 49%. We now produce the entire range of filters used in the Russian nuclear industry. There are 26 of them. 22 of them are our own designs.”

Filters from Obninsk are used all over the country and abroad. They are installed on the new Russian nuclear icebreakers Arktika and Sibir, and they have also been sent to the Ural icebreaker under construction. They are also installed at home — last year, the reactor at the Physics and Chemistry Institute was equipped with new iodine filters.

Aerofilter is the only company in the industry that has its own testing facility for filters. Competitors are also forced to use it, because customers, understandably, require an expert opinion on the reliability of the equipment. But there was a problem — for a long time they did not know how to check the operation of iodine filters. As Katukhin says, several institutes have been involved in solving the issue — the Chemical Technology Institute. Mendeleev, Obninsk Research Institute of Physics and Technology, Novosibirsk University. The scientists came up with an idea, and the Aerofilter implemented it — the prototype is already working. And next year, a new industrial test bench for iodine filters will start operating.

Various safety systems are used at nuclear power plants. In addition, they intend to install filters in case of a запроектной accident. It is far from certain that they will ever have to work, but better safe than sorry. These filters were developed in Obninsk, under the management of InnoInvest. They will be installed for the first time at the Novovoronezh NPP-2 in 2018. There are also innovations in other areas.

THE PROBLEM OF PURE WATER

NPP Omiteks, managed by InnoInvest, has been present in the medical market for a long time, having supplied several thousand waste disinfection units to hospitals across the country. According to the law, all medical waste (syringes, bandages, blood transfusion systems, etc.) must be disinfected before disposal. This is done using microwave units, which are designed and manufactured in Obninsk. However, not every hospital can afford these units. Therefore, Omiteks has developed a large and powerful unit for collective disinfection centers. The process of obtaining permission to produce new microwave ovens is currently underway, and it is expected to be launched in 2018.

It turns out that ultra-high-frequency radiation can be used for disinfection in completely unexpected areas. The Lenta store chain has become interested in such installations. Plastic trays with goods are placed in the store's showrooms. It is clear that they get dirty. Currently, they are disinfected using a steam jet. However, there is a high probability that microwave installations would be more suitable for this purpose.

Source: NGREGION newspaper

Author: Alexey Sobachkin