First reactor vessel installed at Changjiang

Thursday, 15 August 2013

The reactor pressure vessel has been installed at unit 1 of the Changjiang nuclear power plant in China. The CNP-600 unit is set to start operating by the end of next year.

The vessel is carefully lowered into place (Image: CNNC)

Plant constructor China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation reported that the vessel was placed within the unit's reactor building on 10 August.

The component - weighing some 250 tonnes and measuring about ten metres long - was manufactured by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Equipment Co Ltd under a contract signed in December 2008. It arrived on the construction site on 5 August after being transported by ship from Shanghai.

Initial approval for the Changjiang plant's construction was granted by China's National Developmental and Reform Commission in July 2008. Early site works began in December 2008. Construction of unit 1 began with the pouring of first concrete on 25 April 2010, while that for unit 2 was poured on 21 November 2010. Changjiang 1 - whose containment building dome was installed in December 2011 - is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2014, with unit 2 set to start up the following year.

The Changjiang plant, near Hoi Mei Tong village on China's southern island province of Hainan, is being built as a joint venture between China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and China Huaneng Group, with shares split 51% and 49%, respectively. The plant will eventually comprise four 650 MWe CNP-600 pressurized water reactors.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News