New vessel head installed at Angra 1

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has completed the installation of a new reactor vessel head at Brazil's Angra 1. The contract was the first large-scale overseas reactor component retrofit for the Japanese company.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has completed the installation of a new reactor vessel head at Brazil's Angra 1. The contract was the first large-scale overseas reactor component retrofit for the Japanese company.

Angra 1's new reactor vessel head (Image: MHI)

Plant operator Eletronuclear placed the order for the reactor vessel head and control rod drive mechanisms (CDRM) for the 626 MWe pressurised water reactor in 2007. The vessel head was manufactured at MHI's Kobe Shipyard and Manufacturing Works and was delivered to the Brazilian site in April 2010, with the CDRM delivered in April 2012.

MHI has a long history of supplying large components to nuclear plants in Japan and overseas, but Angra 1 is the first installation to be carried out by the company outside Japan. Installation of the new components was scheduled to take place during a planned outage commencing in January 2013. The replacement work, coordinated by MHI, involved disassembly of the plant's existing components before the new components could be installed. The plant came back on line as planned on 6 March

Angra 1, a 626 MWe pressurised water reactor, started up in 1982. It is the oldest of Brazil's two operating nuclear reactors, although its earliest years of operation were beset by problems with the steam supply system. New steam generators, manufactured by Brazil's Nuclebras assisted by Areva, were installed at the plant in 2009.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News