Mitsubishi wraps up AP1000 contracts
Steam turbines and generators for all four of China's AP1000 reactors are to be made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Contracts have been signed with owner Shandong Nuclear Power Company.
Steam turbines and generators for all four of China's AP1000 reactors are to be made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Japanese firm has taken orders for the last two sets.
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| Steam goes in. Power comes out. A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries steam turbine generator set. |
Designer Westinghouse made a batch of deals with Chinese firms in January last year to supply four of its advanced power reactors. Two are to be built at Sanmen in Zhejiang province; two more at Haiyang in Shandong province.
Today an agreement regarding the Haiyang plant was signed by MHI and Shandong Nuclear Power Company. The deal to fit each of the two reactors with steam turbines and generators "further solidifies MHI's position for full-scale entry into the Chinese market for new nuclear power plants," according to MHI.
The Haiyang units are to employ MHI's 54" (1.37 m) class turbine blades as manufactured by MHI's main Takasago factory in Japan's Hyogo prefecture. These will drive Mitsubishi Electric Company generators to produce 1200 MWe each.
To win this contract, MHI teamed with Chinese company Harbin Power Equipment, which will make the turbine casings and other smaller items. It is not yet known which firm will make the steam generators for the units, required to transfer heat from reactor coolant water to force high pressure steam to drive the turbines.
The MHI-Harbin team is also to supply steam turbine generator sets to the other two AP1000s at Sanmen. Other major components for these have already been contracted: In April 2007 Westinghouse signed a contract with Doosan Heavy Industries in South Korea for two pressure vessels and four steam generators.
The four reactors are to be the first four AP1000s anywhere in the world, ahead of potential deployment in the USA where twelve are in planning stages. The Sanmen and Haiyang reactors could all start up between 2013-5.
