#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Big Metallurgical Plant, as the Nickel plant was called until the early 1950s, was commissioned a year later. In February 1942, the head of the Norilsk combine and camp, Alexander Panyukov, determined the procedure for launching an extraordinary part of the BMP. Installation and commissioning of the first waterjacket was supervised by Alexander Belov from Monchegorsk city.
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Severonickel plant, the country’ s only producer of pure nickel since the end of 1940, was evacuated to Norilsk (and also Orsk and Dzhezkazgan). The bridge crane received the first matte ladle of the Big Metallurgical Plant on the night of February 24, 1942.
Under what conditions they built and then received metal in Norilsk, it is not difficult to imagine. It is enough to find out that on the day of the BMP launch, the air temperature outside dropped to minus 47 with a wind of 10 meters per second. It was not warmer inside – the metal walls of the water jacket were freezing, the water froze. The required temperature in the oven was reached only in the evening.
By May 1st of the same 1942, pure nickel was obtained at the Small Metallurgical Plant. The eighth, the best quality part of the nickel produced by the country during the Great Patriotic War was Norilsk nickel.
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