The news came as Westinghouse, consortium team member The Shaw Group Inc. and China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) announce the successful setting of the AP1000® containment vessel top head for the nuclear island of Unit 1 at the Sanmen site in China.
Placement of the 659-ton containment vessel top head, which was manufactured at Shandong Nuclear Power Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in China’s Shandong province, was completed on 29 January at 9:56 a.m. China Time.
"SNPTC expects that the first AP1000 unit at Sanmen will start to produce electricity in 2014," Westinghouse said. The reactor, which started construction in April 2009, was initially slated to come online in August 2013.
