Second Hualong One at Fuqing gets dome

The dome has been installed on the containment building of unit 6 at the Fuqing nuclear power plant. The unit is the second demonstration HPR1000 Hualong One reactor being built at the site in China's Fujian province.

The dome has been installed on the containment building of unit 6 at the Fuqing nuclear power plant. The unit is the second demonstration HPR1000 Hualong One reactor being built at the site in China's Fujian province.

The dome of Fuqing 6's containment is moved into place (Image: CNI23)

The steel dome - measuring almost 47 meters in diameter and over 23m in height, and weighing about 340 tonnes - was raised using a 3200-tonne crawler crane. It was placed upon the top of the containment building walls at 9.21pm today, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has announced. This major milestone, it said, was reached ten days ahead of schedule.

The hemispherical structure - comprising 153 prefabricated components - is a major component for protecting the reactor and preventing the release of radioactive materials into the environment in the event of a serious accident.

China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company Limited (CNI23) noted that the emplacement of the containment building dome marks the formal transfer of the unit's construction from the civil construction phase to the equipment installation phase.

In November 2014, CNNC announced that the fifth and sixth units at Fuqing will use the domestically-developed Hualong One pressurised water reactor design, marking its first deployment. The company had previously expected to use the ACP1000 design for those units, but plans were revised in line with a re-organisation of the Chinese nuclear industry. China's State Council gave final approval for construction of Fuqing units 5 and 6 in mid-April 2015.

The pouring of first concrete for Fuqing 5 began in May 2015, marking the official start of construction of the unit. Construction of unit 6 began in December 2015. The containment dome of unit 5 was installed in May 2017. Fuqing 5 and 6 are scheduled to be completed in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

CNI23 said, "At present, the installation of the nuclear island of unit 5 has entered a construction peak, with CNNC having successfully installed the reactor pressure vessel, three steam generators and the three main pumps."

The reactor vessel internals of Fuqing 5 completed inspection and acceptance checks on 15 March, CNNC said.

"The vessel internals are critical equipment in a nuclear reactor," the company said. "In the HPR1000, they meet the most stringent nuclear power regulations and standards both at home and abroad, with independent intellectual property rights."

Construction of two Hualong One units is also under way at China General Nuclear's Fangchenggang plant in Guangxi province. Those units are also expected to start up in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Two HPR1000 units are under construction at Pakistan's Karachi nuclear power plant. Construction began on Karachi unit 2 in 2015 and unit 3 in 2016; the units are planned to enter commercial operation in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The HPR1000 has also been proposed for construction at Bradwell in the UK, where it is undergoing Generic Design Assessment. UK national regulatory bodies, the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency, announced in November last year the start of the second, technical, phase of the assessment programme for the UK HPR1000.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News