Reactor dome installed on Chinese EPR

Monday, 24 October 2011

Construction of the first EPR unit at the Taishan nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province has reached a major milestone with the dome of the reactor building being lowered into place.

 

 

The dome is installed at Taishan 1 (Image: CNECC)

 

 

Plant constructor China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNECC) announced that the reactor dome was successfully lifted by crane and placed on top of the containment building at 10.18am on 23 October.

 

The reactor building dome, with a circumference of 147 metres and weighing some 270 tonnes, was lifted some 70 metres above the ground and then slowly lowered onto the 44-metre high reactor building. CNECC said it was the largest reactor building dome to be lifted in the world.

 

Taishan 1 and 2 are the first two reactors based on Areva's EPR design to be built in China. The first two EPRs planned for the site form part of an €8 billion contract signed by Areva and the Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC) in November 2007. The Taishan project - 140 kilometres west of Hong Kong - is owned by the Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company Limited, a joint venture between EDF (30%) and CGNPC.

 

First concrete was poured in October 2009, and unit 1 should begin operating in 2013, with unit 2 in 2014. The construction of two further EPRs at Taishan is expected to begin by 2015.

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News