First HTR-PM construction progresses

Friday, 4 April 2014

CORRECTED - An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that the basemat for the first CAP1400 unit at Shidaowan had been completed. It was in fact for the first HTR-PM unit being built at the same site.

The pouring of concrete for the basemat of the first HTR-PM unit - a demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor - at Shidaowan in China's Shandong province was recently completed. Another 19 of the small modular reactors could follow.

The construction site of the first HTR-PM at Shidaowan (Image: CNEC)

Plant constructor China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (CNEC) announced that the pouring of concrete to complete the basemat for the HTR-PM was finished on 29 March. Construction of the reactor building itself will now begin.

The demonstration plant's twin HTR-PM units will drive a single 210 MWe turbine. It is expected to begin operating around 2017. Eighteen further units are proposed for the Shidaowan site, near Rongcheng in Weihai city.

Work began on two demonstration HTR-PM units at China Huaneng Group's Shidaowan site in December 2012. Since then, the foundations and columns to support the reactor building have been installed. China Huaneng is the lead organization in the consortium to build the demonstration units with CNEC and Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET), which is the research and development leader. Chinergy, a joint venture of Tsinghua and CNEC, is the main contractor for the nuclear island.

Two demonstration CAP1400 units - scaled up versions of Westinghouse's AP1000 - are also planned for the Shidaowan site. About 80% of components for these will be made in China. The Shidaowan site is part of the larger Rongcheng Nuclear Power Industrial Park.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News