Fifth Tianwan unit starts commercial operation

09 September 2020

Unit 5 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province has entered commercial operation, having successfully completed a 168-hour continuous demonstration run. It becomes China National Nuclear Corporation's (CNNC's) 22nd reactor in commercial operation.

Tianwan unit 5 (Image: CNNC)

The 1080 MWe domestically-designed ACPR1000 pressurised water reactor achieved first criticality on 27 July and was connected to the electricity grid on 8 August. Since then, the unit has undergone tests at 30%, 50% and 100% of its generating capacity before entering a full-power demonstration operating assessment. Tianwan 5 completed the full-power test-run on 8 September, CNNC announced today.

Units 5 and 6 at Tianwan - Tianwan Phase III - both feature ACPR1000 reactors. First safety-related concrete was poured for unit 5 on 27 December, 2015, with that for unit 6 poured on 7 September, 2016. Tianwan 6 is expected to be put into commercial operation by the end of 2021. China's National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a 40-year operating licence for Tianwan 5 on 7 July. The loading of fuel into the unit's core was completed two days later.

CNNC noted that the localisation rate of Tianwan units 5 and 6 has reached over 95%.

The first four units at the Tianwan site are Gidropress VVER units supplied by Russia, as will be the seventh and eighth.

Tianwan Phase I - units 1 and 2 - 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. Tianwan Phase II - units 3 and 4 - are similar to the first stage of the Tianwan plant, comprising two Russian-designed 1060 MWe VVER-1000 PWRs. First concrete for unit 3 was poured in December 2012, while construction of the fourth unit began in September 2013. Unit 3 entered commercial operation in February 2018, with unit 4 following in December.

In March 2019, a general contract for Phase IV - units 7 and 8 - of the Tianwan plant was signed between AtomStroyExport, the engineering division of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, and CNNC.

The owner and operator of the Tianwan plant - Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation - is a joint venture between CNNC (50%), China Power Investment Corporation (30%) and Jiangsu Guoxin Group (20%).

"To date, the number of nuclear power units in the service of CNNC has reached 22, and the installed capacity has increased from 19.112 million kilowatts to 20.230 million kilowatts," CNNC noted.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News