On 09 August 2017 NNSA (National Nuclear Safety Administration of China) issued official permit for the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor of power unit No 3 of Tianwan NPP. The power unit is being constructed in the Chinese province of Jiangsu with the assistance of ASE Group of Companies. The permission for fuel loading was obtained after a detailed review of the previously developed Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and three rounds of negotiations with the Chinese regulatory authority.
“The physical start-up stage will commence in the nearest future - the first fuel assembly will be loaded into the reactor”, said Alexey Bannik, JSC ASE EC Director for projects in China. Totally 163 fuel assemblies will be loaded into the reactor. “The completion of fuel loading and performance of all the required commissioning procedures will be followed by reaching the minimum controllable level and the power start up - the connection of power unit 3 of Tianwan NPP to the national power grid of China”, said Alexey Bannik.
“All the works related to designing of power unit 3 of Tianwan NPP were completed by mid 2016. Currently the Russian specialists are engaged in design supervision over the construction of the facility and are monitoring every stage of the coming start-up of unit 3. Before the end of 2017 we are to connect the power unit to the grid, we will continue the works for commissioning of power unit 4”, said Valery Kedrov, deputy director of JSC ATOMPROEKT.
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Tianwan NPP is the largest object of the Russian-Chinese economic cooperation. In 2007 the construction of power units 1 and 2, 1000 MW each, was successfully completed, the construction of power units 3 and 4, also with VVER-1000 reactors, is being finalized. The commencement of commercial operation of power unit 3 of Tianwan NPP is planned for 2018.
