Vogtle takes delivery of first coolant pump
The first reactor coolant pump to be delivered for an AP1000 plant in the USA has arrived at Georgia Power's Vogtle project.The first reactor coolant pump to be delivered for an AP1000 plant in the USA has arrived at Georgia Power's Vogtle project.
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| Installing shield building panels at Vogtle 3 (Image: Georgia Power) |
The 170-tonne pump was manufactured at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's Electro-Mechanical Division facility in Pennsylvania and transported to the Vogtle site by truck. Each AP1000 reactor requires four of the pumps, which circulate hot primary-circuit water within the reactor.
Other recent developments at Vogtle include the placement of six new shield building panels for unit 3. The shield building, which houses the reactor's containment vessel, is made up of over 160 of the individual reinforced steel panels, which can weigh around 10 tonnes and can be filled with concrete. Twenty of the panels have been installed so far.
The two Westinghouse-designed AP1000 reactors at Vogtle have been under construction since 2013. Unit 3 is expected to enter service by mid-2019 and unit 4 by mid-2020. Two AP1000s are also under construction at VC Summer in South Carolina, while a total of four AP1000 units are under construction at Sanmen and Haiyang in China. Sanmen unit 1 is expected to begin operation later this year and will be the first AP1000 to enter service.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
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