Two new reactors to make country’s largest nuclear station
Atommash, the heavy equipment manufacturing division of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has manufactured and shipped the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and the full set of four steam generators for the Tianwan-7 nuclear power plant under construction in Jiangsu province, east China.
The company said the components, which are among the heaviest in a nuclear reactor system, will leave a factory in Volgodonsk, southwest Russia, and head for the ports of St Petersburg for the journey to China by sea.
The RPV is a 320-tonne component which contains the nuclear reactor coolant, core shroud, and the nuclear fuel assemblies.
The steam generators are heat exchangers turning demineralised water into steam, which then powers the plant turbines for the generation of electricity. Each steam generator weighs about 350 tonnes.
The Tianwan nuclear power station has six pressurised water reactor (PWR) units in commercial operation and two under construction.
Tianwan-7 and -8 will both be Russia-made VVER-1200 Generation III+ PWR units under agreements signed in 2018 and 2019.
Russia already supplied its VVER-1000 technology for the commercial Tianwan-1, -2, -3, and -4, while Units 5 and 6 operate the domestic CNP-1000 PWR design.
Construction of Tianwan-7 began in May 2021 and Tianwan-8 in February 2022.
