Plant opened for nuclear turbine blades

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has today begun operations at its new plant specifically for the production of forged turbine blades for nuclear power plants.

 

MHI said that the new facility, at its Takasago Machinery Works in Hyogo prefecture, further enhances its capability to supply high-quality forged blades, including one of the world's largest 70-inch (1.78 m) turbine blades, for nuclear power plants both in Japan and abroad. The company said that the facility, construction of which began in April 2009, will also be an important production base for large-size nuclear power plants, including its 1700 MWe advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) designs.

 

The new turbine blade plant, coupled with a new facility dedicated to the production of steam turbine rotors for use in nuclear power plants, "will strongly underpin MHI's production and supply of high-efficiency, large size nuclear power plant turbines," the company said. The rotor production facility, completed in September 2009, boosts MHI's annual rotor production capacity from the current six units to ten.

 

Takasago is MHI's core plant for power turbine production. It produces the different turbines for gas-fired power stations, hydroelectric dams and nuclear power stations, as well as many other power plant components. In May 2007, MHI announced the expansion of its facilities for producing turbines for power generation. Plans included a new plant specifically for steam turbines for nuclear power plants.

 

To date, MHI has manufactured and supplied turbines for all 24 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) in operation in Japan - a total power output equivalent to more than 20,000 MWe. The company has also received export orders for turbines for PWRs from countries including China, Spain and Slovenia. For boiled water reactors (BWRs), MHI has delivered turbines to Mexico and Taiwan.

 

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News