Contract signed for Tianwan phase 2

27 September 2010

Russian and Chinese companies have signed a contract to develop the technical design for the second stage of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China. 

 

Jintao and Medvedev (Russian Presidency) 

President Hu Jintao greets President Medvedev (Image: Russian Presidency) 

 

The contract was signed on behalf of Russia's AtomStroyExport by company president Dan Belenky and for the Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC) by CEO Jiang Goyan during an official visit by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to China.
 
The project to build Tianwan units 3 and 4 will be similar to the first stage of the power plant, comprising two Russian-designed 1060 MWe VVER-1000 pressurized water reactors with JNPC taking responsibility for the design and supply of non-nuclear components and equipment. The agreement follows on from the signature of a framework contract by the two companies in March 2010.
 
Construction of units 3 and 4 had already been pencilled in to begin in October 2010, and at least another two VVERs are planned for the site.
 
Tianwan Phase 1, at Lianyungang city in Jiangsu province, was constructed under a 1992 cooperation agreement between China and Russia. First concrete was poured in October 1999, and the units were commissioned in June 2007 and September 2007 respectively. A two-year warranty operation period for Phase 1 expired in September 2009, and the plant was formally signed over earlier this year.
 
Fuel for the first two units' first cores, plus their first three reloads, was supplied by Russia's TVEL, but China National Nuclear Corporation's (CNNC's) main PWR fuel fabrication plant at Yibin, Sichuan province, is now responsible for producing the fuel for the VVERs using technology transferred from TVEL under the fuel supply contract.
 
Breeding cooperation 

 
As well as the Tianwan contract, a strategic nuclear cooperation agreement between Russia and China was on a long list of documents signed during Medvedev's Chinese visit which also saw the two countries sign a joint statement on the overall deepening of Russian-Chinese partnership and strategic interaction.
 
During the China visit, Rosatom director general Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters that Russia and China plan to sign an intergovernmental agreement and the first contracts to build two Russian-designed BN-800 fast neutron reactors by the end of the year, according to ITAR-TASS. An agreement to start pre-project and design works for a commercial nuclear power plant with two BN-800 fast neutron reactors at Sanming city, Fujian province, was signed in October 2009.
 
Researched and written 

by World Nuclear News