Fifth Tianwan unit starts commercial operation

The 1080 MWe domestically-designed ACPR1000 pressurised water reactor achieved first criticality on 27 July and was connected to the electricity grid on 8 August. Since then, the unit has undergone tests at 30%, 50% and 100% of its generating capacity before entering a full-power demonstration operating assessment. Tianwan 5 completed the full-power test-run on 8 September, CNNC announced today.

Units 5 and 6 at Tianwan - Tianwan Phase III - both feature ACPR1000 reactors. First safety-related concrete was poured for unit 5 on 27 December, 2015, with that for unit 6 poured on 7 September, 2016. Tianwan 6 is expected to be put into commercial operation by the end of 2021. China's National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a 40-year operating licence for Tianwan 5 on 7 July. The loading of fuel into the unit's core was completed two days later.

CNNC noted that the localisation rate of Tianwan units 5 and 6 has reached over 95%.

The first four units at the Tianwan site are Gidropress VVER units supplied by Russia, as will be the seventh and eighth.

Tianwan Phase I - units 1 and 2 - was constructed under a 1992 cooperation agreement between China and Russia. First concrete was poured in October 1999, and the units were commissioned in June 2007 and September 2007, respectively. Tianwan Phase II - units 3 and 4 - are similar to the first stage of the Tianwan plant, comprising two Russian-designed 1060 MWe VVER-1000 PWRs. First concrete for unit 3 was poured in December 2012, while construction of the fourth unit began in September 2013. Unit 3 entered commercial operation in February 2018, with unit 4 following in December.

In March 2019, a general contract for Phase IV - units 7 and 8 - of the Tianwan plant was signed between AtomStroyExport, the engineering division of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, and CNNC.

The owner and operator of the Tianwan plant - Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation - is a joint venture between CNNC (50%), China Power Investment Corporation (30%) and Jiangsu Guoxin Group (20%).

"To date, the number of nuclear power units in the service of CNNC has reached 22, and the installed capacity has increased from 19.112 million kilowatts to 20.230 million kilowatts," CNNC noted.