Another milestone has been reached at unit 2 of the US VC Summer NPP after the final "super modules" were lifted into place in the containment vessel during construction of the AP1000 reactor. Scana Corporation subsidiary South Carolina Electricity & Gas (SCE&G) and co-owner Santee Cooper are building two Westinghouse-designed AP1000 units at the VC Summer site in South Carolina, where SCE&G already operates an existing pressurised water reactor unit. Construction began on both units in 2013, with unit 2 expected to enter service in 2019 and unit 3 in 2020. Westinghouse is the contractor for the construction project, and Fluor is the construction manager.
The CA02 and CA03 modules are part of the in-containment refuelling water storage tank. The tank, which holds up to 500,000 gallons of borated water, is positioned above the reactor, and relies on gravity as the only driving force needed to release water to keep the reactor core cool should the reactor experience an unexpected shutdown. The CA02 and CA03 structural steel modules are too large to transport and require on-site assembly. The CA03 module – assembled from 17 sub-modules – is over 35 metres long, 12 metres tall and weighs about 228t. CA02 is about 12 metres tall and weighs over 50t.
