11 Jan (NucNet): Westinghouse Electric Company has successfully installed AP1000 full-scope plant reference simulators at China’s Sanmen and Haiyang nuclear power plants.
Two AP1000 units are under construction at Sanmen and two at Haiyang, with the first expected to produce electricity in 2014.
Westinghouse, a unit of Japan’s Toshiba, also announced the successful training of the first class of 34 AP1000 reactor operators and senior reactor operators at the Sanmen site.
Prospective operators have been studying for 18 months in preparation to take operator licence examinations with the China National Nuclear Safety Administration in November 2013. They will become the world’s first licensed AP1000 nuclear plant operators.
Another 36 Sanmen students are scheduled to complete training next month, and a new class of potential operators will commence simulator training at Haiyang in the spring of 2013.
Westinghouse said the AP1000 simulators are the most modern nuclear plant simulators in the world. Contracts for 10 AP1000 reactors have been placed around the world: four in China and six in the US.
