Tianwan 3 enters warranty period

Russia's ASE Group has handed over unit 3 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province to the customer for a two-year warranty period of operation. The Russian-supplied VVER-1000 is scheduled to enter commercial operation later this year.

Russia's ASE Group has handed over unit 3 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province to the customer for a two-year warranty period of operation. The Russian-supplied VVER-1000 is scheduled to enter commercial operation later this year.

Tianwan unit 3 (Image: CNNC)

Rosatom announced on 6 March that operation of the unit had been transferred to the plant owner and operator, Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC). JNPC is a joint venture between China National Nuclear Corporation (50%), China Power Investment Corporation (30%) and Jiangsu Guoxin Group (20%).

"The Protocol of Provisional Takeover of Unit 3 Tianwan NPP was signed during the course of 25th Joint Coordination Committee Meeting at Tianwan NPP construction site in China," said Alexey Bannik, ASE Group's director of projects in China.

Tianwan 3 and 4 are AES-91 VVER-1000 units designed by Gidropress and supplied by Rosatom. AtomStroyExport is the main contractor, supplying the nuclear island. First concrete for unit 3 was poured in December 2012, while construction of unit 4 began in September 2013. Two similar VVER-1000 reactors (units 1 and 2) began operating at the site in 2007.

The process of loading the 163 fuel assemblies into the core of Tianwan 3 got under way last August. The start-up process began on 27 September, with the reactor achieving criticality two days later. Following the completion of commissioning tests at 25% capacity, the unit was connected to the grid on 30 December. Dynamic tests were later performed at 50%, 75% and 100% of capacity. The unit completed demonstration operation at nominal capacity for 100 hours on 15 February.

Rosatom noted that Tianwan 3 had been put into operation "on time and under all the contractual obligations in the framework of construction of the second stage of Tianwan NPP".

China's State Council gave its approval for the third phase of the Tianwan plant (units 5 and 6) - both featuring Chinese-designed 1080 MWe ACPR1000 reactors - on 16 December 2015. First safety-related concrete was poured for unit 5 later that month and for unit 6 in September 2016. Unit 5 is expected to enter commercial operation in December 2020 and unit 6 in October 2021.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News