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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2016
New Energy
Fangchenggang
On December 24, 2015, Unit 3
of Fangchenggang NPP, China, the
HPR1000 demonstration unit, has
officially started construction, with the
first pouring of nuclear concrete. Units
3 and 4 of Fangchenggang NPP are
considered as the reference units for the
Bradwell B nuclear project in the UK,
and the construction of Unit 3 lays a
solid foundation for “going global” with
HPR1000 technology.
HPR1000, Gen-III nuclear power
technology co-developed by
China
General Nuclear Power Corporation
(CGN
)
and CNNC, draws on the over
30 years of accumulated experience,
technologies
and
expertise,
and
assimilates domestic and overseas
experience
on
nuclear
design,
construction and operation. In addition,
HPR1000, innovatively applied the safety
design concept of the combination of
active and passive and based on domestic
mature nuclear equipment manufacturing
system, is regarded as a sustainable and
proprietary Gen-III nuclear technology
which achieves the balance of safety and
economy, the combination of active and
passive safety systems and the integration
of technological advancement and
maturity.
In December 2014, the National
Energy Administration approved the
two-unit (HPR1000) construction plan
for Fangchenggang NPP Project
Ⅱ
and
on December 16, 2015, the proposal was
finally approved at the Executive Meeting
of State Council chaired by Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang.
Vogtle
Georgia Power
announced the latest
construction achievement in the expansion
of Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro,
Georgia – the recently completed 15-hour
continuous concrete pour for the Unit 3
“turbine tabletop.” The milestone marks
the first turbine tabletop placement for a
U.S. AP1000 new nuclear project.
The turbine tabletop is comprised
of approximately 2,400 cubic yards, or
250 individual concrete trucks, of self-
consolidating concrete measuring 10 feet-
thick. The tabletop serves as a pedestal
for the Unit 3 generator and turbines and
is designed to support the weight of the
heavy components.
Contact: Georgia Power, telephone:
(404) 506-7676.
Shin-Kori
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power
Co., Ltd (
KHNP) (president: Jo Seok)
announced that it has started the initial
fuel loading of Shin-Kori Unit 3, Korea’s
25th nuclear power plant, which is of the
same model as those exported to UAE
(APR1400). Shin-Kori Unit 3 was granted
its operation license from the nuclear
power safety committee on October 29,
2015. It is scheduled to start commercial
operation after fuel loading and start-
up tests are complete, a process that is
estimated to take about seven months.
Fuel loading involves completing
the performance testing according to
the regulations, obtaining the operation
license from regulatory institutions and
loading the nuclear reactor’s fuel for the
first time. The APR1400 has a capacity of
1400MW, making it the largest capacity
reactor in Korea, uses 241 bundles of
nuclear fuel; and the loading process is
expected to take about 9 days.
After fuel loading, KHNP will
initiate the start-up test. During this
period, 5 stages of tests are carried
out: hot functional test to verify that
the essential facilities operate properly
under normal operating temperature and
pressure conditions, initial criticality, low
power physics test, power ascension test
and the final stage, which is performance
guarantee test. Notably, in power
ascension test, which takes the longest
period of time to complete, the power
plant’s output is adjusted from 0% to
100% over a period of 80 days to test the
proper operation of equipment.
As failure signals are artificially
generated during start-up test to confirm
that the power plant’s equipment operates
safely as designed.
Contact: KHNP, website:
http://
Olkiluoto
Testing of the instrumentation &
control (I&C) systems of
Teollisuuden
Voima’s
(TVO) OL3 plant unit began on
January 12, 2016. The I&C systems now
under testing will be used for operating,
monitoring and controlling the OL3 plant
unit.
The start of I&C tests is the first
milestone achieved in 2016. The next
significant steps will be taken in April
2016, when starting of the process
systems tests is scheduled to take place.
At the same time, also the Operating
License application of the plant unit will
be submitted to the Finnish Ministry of
Employment and the Economy.
Contact: Jouni Silvennoinen, TVO,
telephone: 358 2 8381 4100.
Sanmen
The final module - the containment
water tank - has been installed at the
second AP1000 unit under construction
at Sanmen in China’s Zhejiang province.
The operation to lift the 312-tonne
containment cooling tank - with an
outer diameter of almost 26 metres (85.3
feet), an inner diameter of 10.6 metres
(34.7 feet) and a height of just over 10
metres (32.8 feet) - was completed on
December 27, 2015, plant constructor
China Nuclear Engineering Corporation
(CNEC) announced.
The large round component is a major
part of the AP1000’s safety systems.
It will hold some 3000 cubic metres of
water ready to flow down to evaporate
from the surface of the containment
vessel in any emergency situation where
the reactor system may be overheating.
This evaporation would help to cool the
overall system. The water could also be
directed to top up the used fuel pool,
while the tank itself can be refilled from
water stored elsewhere on site.
Sanmen unit 1 is expected to be
the first AP1000 to begin operating, in
September 2016. Haiyang Unit 1 is
expected to start up by the end of 2016.
Containment tests have already been
successfully conducted at both units. All
four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to
be in operation by the end of 2017.
Contact:
World Nuclear News
,
website:
