Agreement for building Lufeng AP1000s
The contractual framework for constructing the nuclear islands of the first two AP1000 units at Lufeng in China's Guangdong province has been agreed.
China General Nuclear (CGN) and a team from Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) and State Nuclear Power Engineering Company (SNPEC) signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract framework agreement for the nuclear islands of the Lufeng units on 29 September.
CGN had originally planned to build its first AP1000 units at the inland site of Xianning in Hubei province. However, although the Xianning project was included in the 12th five-year plan to start construction, concerns regarding possible pollution of rivers led to an announcement in October 2012 that approvals for inland plants would be deferred until after 2015. It therefore transferred plans for the AP1000 units to Lufeng, where six CPR1000 units had been planned. The AP1000 plant equipment manufactured for Xianning is now being deployed at Lufeng.
China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, gave approval in March for the construction of two AP1000 units at Lufeng. Preparatory work - including the preliminary design, document preparation for the licence application and the procurement of long-lead equipment - has been underway since the beginning of this year.
The first four AP1000 reactors in China are being built at Sanmen and Haiyang, for China National Nuclear Corporation and China Power Investment Corp respectively. Sanmen unit 1 is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating. The unit is expected to begin generating electricity in 2014. All four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to be in operation by 2016.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
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