ASE planning to begin reactor startup for power unit No. 4 at Tianwan NPP in Sept
MOSCOW. May 10 (Interfax) - Russia's ASE Group is planning to begin the reactor startup for power unit no. 4 at China's Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in September, the company said.
Preparations are under way to load fuel into the unit's Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactor. A hot functional test was completed at the beginning of May.
"We're now in the home straight in preparing the unit for startup. It remains to audit the core and auxiliary equipment of the first and second reactor loops, and to obtain permission from the oversight body to load fuel," said Alexei Bannik, director for China projects at JSC IK ASE.
Rosatom earlier planned to start up the Tianwan NPP's second stage, consisting of the third and fourth units, in 2017. It started the third unit up in August 2017.
ASE handed over the third unit to the plant owner and operator Jangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC) for a 24-month warranty period of operation in March this year. The ASE Group's JSC Atomproyekt is the general designer for the second stage.
There were plans to put the third reactor into service in February 2018 and the fourth in December 2018. Russia has already put the Tianwan NPP's first and second power generating units into operation. The possibility of building another four power units has also been discussed.
The ASE Group was created as part of the organization of Rosatom's engineering division through the merger of four leading companies in the sector: JSC IK ASE, JSC ASE, JSC Atomenergoproyekt and JSC Atomproyekt.