The largest and heaviest module – the CA20 – has been installed at unit 4 of the Haiyang nuclear power plant in China’s Shandong province, the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) has announced.
The cuboid-shaped CA20 module comprises plant and equipment for used fuel storage, transmission, the heat exchanger and waste collection, among other things. The module measures 20.5 metres long, 14.2 metres wide and 21 metres high.
At 10.39am on 14 July, after a series of hoisting operations, the 875-tonne CA20 module of Haiyang 4 was moved into place, SNERDI said. The total weight of the hoisting was 1090 tonnes.
“The smooth placement of the CA20 module of Haiyang Nuclear Power Unit 4 has created good conditions for subsequent continuous construction and provided a guarantee for the realisation of the optimal construction period,” SNERDI said.
The CAP1000 reactor design – the Chinese version of the Westinghouse AP1000 – uses modular construction techniques, enabling large structural modules to be built at factories and then installed at the site.
The construction of two new reactors at each of the Sanmen, Haiyang and Lufeng sites in China was approved by China’s State Council in April 2021. The approvals were for Sanmen units 3 and 4, Haiyang 3 and 4 and units 5 and 6 of the Lufeng plant. The Sanmen and Haiyang plants are already home to two AP1000 units each, and two CAP1000 units were approved for Phase II (units 3 and 4) of each plant.
The first safety-related concrete was poured for the nuclear island of Haiyang unit 3 in July 2022, with that for unit 4 poured in April this year.
The planned construction period for Haiyang 3 and 4 is 56 months.
Source: World Nuclear News