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Hot Functional Testing Complete At China’s Sanmen-2 AP1000 Reactor

By David Dalton
1 February 2018

Hot Functional Testing Complete At China’s Sanmen-2 AP1000 Reactor
The Sanmen nuclear station in China. Photo courtesy Sanmen Nuclear Power Company.

1 Feb (NucNet): Hot functional testing has been completed at the 1,000-MW Sanmen-2 nuclear power unit under construction in Zhejiang province, eastern China, project developer State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) said in a statement.

According to SNPTC the testing took 77 days. Hot testing is carried out to ensure that coolant circuits and nuclear safety systems are functioning properly before fuel is loaded.

Cold hydrostatic testing was completed on the primary circuit of the plant in September 2017. Cold hydrostatic testing verifies that welds, joints, pipes and components of the reactor coolant system and other associated systems are able to withstand pressures about 1.5 times higher than those during normal operation.

The Westinghouse-designed AP1000 is a Generation III+ pressurised water reactor. Construction of the unit began in December 2009.

There are four AP1000 nuclear units under construction in China, two at Sanmen and two at Haiyang.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China has 38 commercial nuclear plants in operation and 19 under construction.

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