Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2014 NuclearPlantJournal.com
11
plant during its 60-year operating life.
The low-cost baseload power generated
by the Blue Castle Project will support
regional economic growth well beyond
the
immediate
construction
and
operation jobs, while also providing the
environmental benefit of zero carbon
emissions.
Contact: telephone: (412) 374-6379,
Watts Bar 2
The
Tennessee Valley Authority’s
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant’s Unit 2 reactor
is more than 90 percent complete and
moving through key testing to become
the nation’s first new nuclear generation
of the 21st century.
In the eighth quarterly report since
TVA revised its Estimate to complete
the project, TVA said recently that Watts
Bar Unit 2 continues to meet safety and
quality targets and remains on schedule
and within budget to become the first
U.S. reactor to generate “new” power in
nearly two decades, and the first since
Watts Bar Unit 1 in 1996.
Watts Bar Unit 2 is projected to
begin commercial operation between
September 2015 and June 2016, with a
most likely date by December 2015. The
project has a projected completion cost
between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, with
a most likely target of $4.2 billion.
Testing of individual and combined
plant systems is under way, TVA said
in the latest quarterly update, covering
February to April 2014. The first major
system test, called Open Vessel Testing
(OVT), began ahead of schedule during
the period and was completed earlier
in the summer 2014. OVT involves
pumping water into the reactor vessel
through systems used when shutting
down the reactor and in support of nuclear
operations.
Contact: telephone: (865) 632-6000.
Atucha 3
The commercial framework contract
for the construction of a third reactor
at the Atucha plant in Argentina has
been signed between Nucleoeléctrica
Argentina and China National Nuclear
Corporation (CNNC).
Through the contract, the parties
agree that Nucleoeléctrica, as the owner
and architect engineer of the project, will
conduct pre-project, design, construction,
commissioning and operation of the new
800 MWe Candu 6 unit. Meanwhile,
CNNC will provide technical support,
services, equipment and instrumentation
under a $2 billion long-term financing
arrangement. In addition, China will also
supply materials needed by Argentina to
locally produce components for the unit.
CNNC operates two Candu 6 units
at its Qinshan plant in China’s Zhejiang
province, which will be the reference
plant for the new Atucha unit.
The framework contract also calls
for the creation of five commissions
- including one on funding - that will
meet in Buenos Aires to develop around
12 specific contracts related to the new
reactor. These should be signed during
the first few months of next year.
The signing of the framework
contract for Atucha 3 follows that of a
high-level agreement towards the unit’s
construction. That accord was signed in
mid-July as part of a meeting in Buenos
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