China General Nuclear (CGN) has announced that operation of Hongyanhe 5 in Liaoning province will be delayed until the second half of 2021, a year later than scheduled, and startup of unit 6 will be put back by six months to the first half of 2022.
Plant operator Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Company (LHNP) – a joint venture between CGN (45%), State Power Investment Corporation (45%) and the Dalian Municipal Construction Investment Co (10%) – had completed an assessment of the construction-related risks for the units, and "after due consideration", had decided to "adjust the construction plan of the project".
Hongyanhe 5 and 6 (Phase II of the NPP project) comprises two 1080MWe CGN-designed ACPR-1000 reactors, which began construction in March and July 2015.
Cold functional testing of Hongyanhe 5 began on 10 October 2018 and equipment installation is underway at Hongyanhe 6.
The ACPR-1000 is a three-loop reactor design with double containment and core melt trap. CGN launched it in November 2011.
However, in 2012 when China National Nuclear Corporation and CGN, were instructed to coordinate their reactor programmes, CNNC's ACP1000 and CGN's ACPR-1000 became the standardised Hualong One (HPR1000).
Yangjiang 5&6 were the first ACPR-1000 units to enter commercial operation, in July 2018 and July 2019, respectively. Units 5 and 6 of the Tianwan nuclear plant, which are due to start up in 2020 and 2021, are also ACPR-1000 units.
Phase I at Hongyanhe (units 1-4) are CPR-1000 pressurised water reactors. Construction began in 2009. Hongyanhe 1&2 began operation in 2013 and 2014, Hongyanhe 3 began operation in 2015 and Hongyanhe 4 in 2016.
Photo: Reactor vessel arrived at the Hongyanhe 5 in March 2018 (Credit: CGN)