Fuel loading completed at Fangchenggang 2

25 May 2016

The loading of fuel into the core of the second unit at the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in China's Guangxi province has been completed. The unit is expected to start up later this year.  

Fangchenggang 2 fuel loading - 460  (CGN)  
Fuel-loading operations at Fangchenggang 2 (Image: CGN)  

The plant received permission on 18 May from the National Nuclear Safety Administration to load fuel into unit 2. Operations to load a total of 157 fuel assemblies into the CPR-1000 pressurized water reactor (PWR) began at 6.00pm on 21 May and was completed at 11.52am yesterday, China General Nuclear (CGN) announced today.

Fangchenggang is located near Hongsha village in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, about 45 kilometres from the border with Vietnam. A total of six reactors are planned to operate there. Units 1 and 2 are both CPR-1000s, units 3 and 4 will feature Hualong One reactors, and units 5 and 6 are to be AP1000s. All of these are models of large PWRs.

Construction of the first two units at the Fangchenggang plant began in July 2010. The reactor pressure vessel of unit 1 was put in place in August 2013, while that for unit 2 followed in September 2014. Unit 1 was connected to the grid last October. CGN said unit 2 is scheduled to enter commercial operation in the second half of this year.

Construction of Fangchenggang 3 began in December 2015, while construction of unit 4 is scheduled to begin later this year. These two units are expected to start up in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The plant is 39% owned by Guangxi Investment Group and 61% owned by CGN.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News