22 Oct (NucNet): The Fangjiashan-1 nuclear unit in Zhejiang province, eastern China, has achieved first criticality, owner China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has said.
The Chinese-designed CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) unit reached first criticality on 21 October 2014 at 14:52 local time, CNNC said.
The China National Nuclear Safety Administration gave its approval on 20 October 2014 for the unit to go critical.
On 1 September 2014, CNNC said workers had begun loading the first of 157 fuel assemblies into the Fangjiashan-1 reactor core. The loading of the assemblies was completed in 49 hours, CNNC said.
The Fangjiashan site has two CPR-1000s under construction. The site is next to the existing Qinshan nuclear power station, which has seven nuclear reactors in commercial operation.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Power Reactor Information System (Pris) database, China has 22 nuclear units in commercial operation and 27 units under construction.
