Four Westinghouse AP1000 reactor construction projects in China nearing completion continue to pass operational milestones on their way towards commercial operating status, the latest represented by the Sanmen Unit 1 reactor in Zhejiang province that reached 100 percent power on Tuesday.
The unit has undergone a series of power ascension tests, reaching full power at just after 2 o'clock PM on Tuesday, according to the World Nuclear Association.
The announcement was made by China National Nuclear Corporation and the State Nuclear Technology Corporation.
Meanwhile, at the Haiyang NPP in Shandong province, two other AP1000 reactors are marching towards completion of pre-operational testing. Unit 1 at Haiyang reached first criticality on August 8. On the same day, fuel loading was initiated at Unit 2 at the plant.
Unit 1 at Haiyang is to begin low-power dress rehearsals soon with turbines driven by nuclear-power created steam for the first time. After that, operators will begin to increase power until it, too, obtains full power.
In China, commercial operations is said to begin after the reactor has run at full power for 168 continuous hours, which is seven complete days.
Haiyang Unit 1 is expected to reach commercial status by the end of the year. Sanmen 1, however, is slightly ahead in the race to become the first commercially operational AP1000 reactor. That unit, too, is expected to reach commercial operational status before the end of the year.
Fuel loading at Sanmen 1 began in late April of this year. The reactor hit first criticality on June 21. Turbines were engaged at the plant using nuclear-power for the first time on June 27.
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Originally Westinghouse estimated the building time for an AP1000 to be approximately 5 years, getting to production within 6 years. At Sanmen, for a first of a kind they did it in 7 or 8 years, a bit better than Areva's Finnish project that has been dragging on since 2005 and end not in sight yet.
