The fourth and final reactor coolant pump has been installed at unit 2 of China’s Sanmen NPP AP1000, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced on 4 January. Westinghouse is currently constructing four AP1000 units in China, two each at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Haiyang in Shandong. US manufacturer Curtiss-Wright was awarded a contract by Westinghouse to produce 16 reactor coolant pumps for the units in 2007.
Sanmen unit 1, construction of which began in April 2009, is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating. First concrete for Sanmen 2 was poured in December 2009. All four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to be in operation by the end of this year, However, they are more than three years behind the original schedule, the head of China National Nuclear Corporation, Sun Qin, told Reuters last year. “At first we planned on December 2013 but there was just no way, with key pieces of equipment not available," he noted. The reactor have faced series of delays as a result of design flaws and problems with key components. Sun said new coolant pumps for the two reactor units only arrived at the end of 2015.
Meanwhile, assembly of the containment building dome for unit 5 of the Fuqing NPP in Fujian province has been completed, CNNC announced on 3 January. The unit is the first of two demonstration Hualong One pressurised water reactor (PWR) units being built at the site (units 5 and 6) and is expected to start up in 2019. Earlier, the boron injection tank was installed at unit 6. The 20t boron injection tank will contain a boric acid solution that can be injected into the reactor in the event of a severe accident to shut down the chain reaction should the control rods fail. First concrete for the reactor basemats for Fuqing 5 and 6 took place in May and December 2015, and they are scheduled to be completed in 2019 and 2020.
Units 1-4 at Fuqing are Chinese CPR-1000 PWRs. Cold hydrostatic testing was completed at Fuqing unit 4 on 25 December, China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited announced. The 1087MWe CPR-1000 is scheduled to start up later this year.
China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited also announced on 31 December that the control room has been completed for the demonstration HTR-PM high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant under construction at Shidaowan in Shandong province. The plant will initially comprise twin HTR-PM reactor modules driving a single 210MWe steam turbine. Construction started in late 2012 and commercial operation is scheduled to start in late 2017.