Fuel loading began on 25 April at China’s Sanmen 1 in Zhejiang province – a Westinghouse AP1000 – after the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) issued a permit, China National Nuclear Corp and Westinghouse said in separate statements. Fuel loading was previously scheduled for summer 2017, but it was delayed awaiting approval from China’s nuclear regulator. Earlier in April, regulators approved fuel-loading of a French-designed EPR reactor at the Taishan station in Guangdong province. Taishan 1 has been scheduled to start last year but has repeatedly been postponed since construction began in 2009.
US-based Westinghouse originally planned to start its first AP1000 reactor at Sanmen in 2013, but design problems, supply chain bottlenecks and the need for stronger safety measures cause delays. Westinghouse was purchased by Canada’s Brookfield Business Partners after it filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
NNSA said that, before fuel loading began, it had conducted a six-year safety review of the Sanmen 1 project and dispatched on-site supervisors for to oversee the construction process. The project meets the design safety goals, and the construction quality is good, it added. Westinghouse said, "The fuel loading process will be followed by initial criticality, initial synchronisation to the electricity grid, and gradual power ascension testing until all testing is safely and completed at 100% power."
Westinghouse and its partner the Shaw Group in 2007 received authorisation to construct four AP1000 units in China: two at Sanmen and two more at Haiyang site in Shandong province. Hot testing of Sanmen 1 was completed on in June 2017, and it is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating later this year. Haiyang 1 and Sanmen 2 are also expected to start operating by the end of this year, with Haiyang 2 expected to start up in 2019.
