Nuclear News Weekly Roundup - 04/09 - 04/13

Taishan Unit 1 Started Fuel-loading

On the afternoon of April 10th, Liu Hua, Director of the NNSA and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (former MEP), issued Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company an approval for Taishan Unit 1 to load fuel for the first time. The MEE’s South China Station of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Inspection verified that Taishan Unit 1 was qualified to begin fuel-loading. Field engineers on-site began to load the first fuel assembly at 20:18 that evening. Taishan Unit 1 was recognized as the World’s First EPR Unit in January 2018 when French President Macron paid a state visit to China and it is now the first Gen III unit in China to start fuel-loading, overtaking the AP1000 at Sanmen.

Changjiang NPP Advancing the Phase II Extension Project’s Preparation Work

On March 28th, the General Manager of Hainan Nuclear Power Company, Xu Jun, told a journalist that preparation work for Changjiang NPP’s Phase II extension project is advancing smoothly and the project will build two HPR1000 units. Changjiang NPP is located in western Hainan Province and is planned to build 4 units in total. Units 1&2 of the Phase I project had their FCDs on April 25th, 2010 and November 21st, 2010 and were connected to the grid on August 12th, 2016.

Fuqing Unit 5’s Reactor Internals Shipped

On April 12th, the reactor internals of Fuqing Unit 5 were shipped from Shanghai Electric’s No.1 Machine Tools Plant. The reactor internals were designed by the Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC). The system supports fuel bundles while absorbing neutrons and gamma rays emitted from the core, protecting the external materials from radiation and prolonging the lifespan of the reactor.