[Continuing coverage of the world's nuclear renaissance. Here, the French designed EPR is coming on line, apparently on time and at budget. Go figure? This will be 2 reactors each 1700 MWs of non-carbon energy. More to come...David Walters]
The first Chinese-made steam generator for an EPR has been completed and is being transported to unit 2 of the Taishan plant in the country's Guangdong province.
Taishan 2 SG (CGNPC) 460
The first Chinese EPR steam generator starts its journey to Taishan (Image: CGNPC)
The four steam generators for Taishan 1 - measuring 25 meters long and weighing 550 tonnes each - were manufactured at Areva's plant at Chalon-St Marcel, France. However, those for subsequent Chinese EPR units are to be produced domestically.
China General Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC) has announced that the first domestically-produced steam generators for Taishan 2 is now finished, while the second is nearing completion. The components, manufactured by Shanghai Electric, will be shipped to the site over the next couple of months.
Steam generators are major components in a pressurized water reactor system which transfer heat from the primary reactor coolant circuit to a secondary circuit, turning water into steam to drive a turbine and generator.
Taishan 1 and 2 are the first two reactors based on Areva's EPR design to be built in China. They form part of an €8 billion contract signed by Areva and CGNPC in November 2007. The Taishan project - 140 kilometres west of Hong Kong - is owned by the Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company Limited, a joint venture between EDF (30%) and CGNPC. Unit 1 should begin operating in 2013, with unit 2 following in 2014. The construction of two further EPRs at Taishan is expected to begin by 2015.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
Reprinted here with permission
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I should add that this is but one of 28 reactors that are under construction right now in China with another 50 or so planned over the next 5 years. To read more on China's exponential increase in nuclear energy see: http://www.world-nuclear.org/...
And important take out from this particular web site:
Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most advanced, to give a five- or six-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 58 GWe by 2020, then possibly 200 GWe by 2030, and 400 GWe by 2050.
But wait! There's more!
[The very first Integral Fast Reactor that anti-nukes said couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't be built is, um...being built--DW.]
Fast reactor developer licensed to build
21 May 2013
Russia's AKME-Engineering is now licensed to provide construction services for nuclear power plants, in preparation for the construction of a pilot heavy metal-cooled reactor.
Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued the licence to the joint stock company set up by Rosatom in 2009 to develop the SVBR-100 metal-cooled integral fast reactor. AKME-Engineering is tasked with designing, constructing and commercialising the 100 MWe modular reactor.
A training simulator for the SVBR-100 has been operational since March, and a pilot unit is scheduled to enter operation in 2017. The pilot unit is to be built at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR) at Dimitrovgrad.
AKME-Engineering director general Vladimir Petrochenko explained that the licence enables the company to render nuclear power construction services to operating organizations. AKME-Engineering itself will be the operating organization for the Dimitrovrad pilot plant, and the company will now need to obtain various licences for the construction of the Dimitrovgrad pilot plant.
The SVBR-100 is an integral reactor design, in which all the primary circuit - the reactor core itself as well as steam generators and associated equipment such as main circulating pumps - sits inside a pool of lead-bismuth coolant in a single vessel. The factory-built module could be shipped by rail, road or water to its destination where it could be used to supply heat, industrial steam and water desalination as well as electricity generation. Several modules could be co-located to provide a larger power station. The reactor concept has already been used on seven Russian Alfa-class nuclear submarines as well as in experimental installations on land.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
Reprinted here with permission
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