OREANDA-NEWS. August 16, 2007. After midnight Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation put unit 2 of Tianwan NPP into full capacity. Thus, the unit has been put into commercial service.

In mid Sept Atomstroyexport and JNPC will sign a protocol on preliminary acceptance of the unit.

Unit 1 of Tianwan NPP has been in commercial service since June 2007. It is operating safely at full capacity and has generated almost 5bln KWh, so far. By the moment of its launch unit 2 had produced over 700mln KWh.

The commissioning of unit 2 has proved once again that the nuclear power industry of Russia has enough potential for implementing the biggest possible nuclear energy projects.

Now that the construction of the 1st and 2nd units of Tianwan NPP has been successfully completed, Russia can hope for more NPP projects in China.

Note

On Dec 18 1992 the Russian and Chinese governments agreed that they would jointly build an NPP in China and that Russia would provide China with a government credit for that project. In 1992–1997 the sides considered details, made contracts and additional agreements, prepared the feasibility report, Russia supplied China with necessary materials. At first, the sides planned to build the NPP in the province of Liaoning, but, later, they chose Lianyungang City of Jiangsu Province. On Dec 29 1997 Russia and China signed a general contract stipulating that Atomstroyexport should build in Lianyungang two nuclear power units with WWER-1000 reactors with a total capacity of 2000 MW. The construction was started in 1998.

Among the other participants in the Unit 2 project were Atomenergoproject (St. Petersburg), general designer of Tianwan NPP, Hydropress, designer of reactor system, Kurchatov Institute, research manager, as well as Izhora Plants, Power Machines and other companies producing equipment for NPPs – a total of 150 Russian companies and organizations.

Experts say that WWER-1000 reactor is very safe. It has deeply echeloned protection system: double shell for preventing emission of radiation and for protecting the reactor and a kind of a trap for keeping melted core inside and preventing it from destroying the foundations of the plant in case of an accident. This is a unique technology and China is the first country to have it. The “trap” has been designed by Russian engineers and approved by Russian, Chinese and IAEA inspectors.

Atomstroyexport is the leading Russian organization implementing inter-governmental agreements on the construction of NPPs abroad. Presently, it is the only company in the world that is simultaneously building six nuclear power units in China, India, Iran and Bulgaria.