The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for the second unit of Taiwan’s Lungmen nuclear power plant was delivered on 6th July and stored at the site warehouse, Taiwanese utility Taipower has announced.
Lungmen is Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant, and will consist of two 1350-megawatt advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) units. Construction began in 1999 and, as of the end of last month, “is 57% completed”.
The RPV for unit one has already been stored on site, and installation is planned to take place by the end of 2004 [see News No. 208, 24th June 2003].
Lungmen-1 and -2 are scheduled to start commercial operations in July 2006 and July 2007, respectively, although Taipower has said “the schedule may be extended”.
Taipower also said last week that while the Taiwanese government originally approved almost 170 billion Taiwan New Dollars (TWD) for the Lungmen project in the early 1990s (equivalent today to about 5 billion US dollars), Taipower asked for TWD 49.9 billion to be added to the budget last year – and that the supplemental budget is under review by the country’s Executive Yuan (cabinet).
