Fuel loading completed at Tianwan 4

• 5 years ago (2018-09-04)
• David Flin

Asia 859 Nuclear 643

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China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has announced that all 163 fuel assemblies have been loaded into the core of unit 4 at China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant. The Russian-supplied VVER-1000 is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2018.

Rosatom has said that now fuel loading has been completed, start-up and commissioning will be undertaken, and the reactor will be brought to the minimum controllable power level, and then the start of power generation.

Construction of Tianwan Unit 4 started in September 2013, and is expected to enter commercial operation in March 2019. Construction of Unit 5 began in December 2015, and Unit 6 in September 2016. CNNC plans to put both Units 5 and 6 into commercial operation by the end of 2021.

Russia and China have signed agreements for the construction of Units 7 and 8, consisting of two VVER-1200 reactors.

The Tianwan plant is owned and operated by Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation, a joint venture between CNNC (50 per cent), China Power Investment Corporation (30 per cent), and Jiangsu Guoxin Group (20 per cent).