Rosatom is shipping key equipment for unit 3 of China’s Xudabao NPP, under construction in Liaoning province. Four steam generators and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) have been completed at Atommash in Volgadonsk (the production site of AEM-Technologies, part of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division Atomenergomash). The total weight of the consignment is 1700 tonnes. Shipment will be carried out initially by road to a specialised factory berth and then by barge along water ways to the seaport of St Petersburg for the final leg of the journey to China.
Producing equipment for four nuclear power units in China is a key project in the development of a strategic energy partnership between Russia and China, explained Igor Kotov, General Director of JSC Atomenergomash. “It is under the personal control of the Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev. In April this year, the first set of equipment was shipped - a reactor and four steam generators for unit 7 of Tianwan NPP, and now we are shipping equipment for Xudabao unit 3. Shipment for the next two power units of these stations [ Tianwan 8 and Xudabao 4] will take place in 2024.”
The RPV is 13 metres long and 4.5 metres in diameter, and weighs 320 tonnes. Each steam generator is about 14 metres long, 4 metres in diameter and weighs 350 tons.
In June 2018, Russia and China signed four agreements for the construction of two VVER-1200 reactors as units 7&8 at the Tianwan NPP in Jiangsu province and two more to be built as units 3&4 at the new Xudabao NPP site in Huludao, Liaoning province. Further agreements signed in June 2019 included a general contract for the construction Xudabao 3&4, as well as a contract for the supply of nuclear fuel. The power units are expected to be commissioned in 2027-2028.
Image: A trailer carries the reactor pressure vessel to be installed at Xudabao 3 (courtesy of AEM)
