A ceremony was held on 28 November to mark the installation of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of the 1340MWe APR-1400 under construction as unit 5 of South Korea's Shin-Kori nuclear plant.
Shin-Kori 5 is scheduled to begin commercial operation in March 2023 followed by unit 6 in June 2024. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction manufactured the RPV.
Construction of Shin-Kori 5&6 began in 2017 and 2018 and work on the two units is 51% complete. Shin-Kori 3&4, the first two APR-1400 units, began commercial operation in December 2016 and September this year. First concrete for Shin Kori 3 was poured in 2008 and for unit 4 in 2009. Unit 3 was initially scheduled to enter commercial operation at the end of 2013, followed by unit 4 in September 2014. Still, tests of safety-related control cabling and its subsequent replacement resulted in delays.
Two further APR-1400 units are under construction as units 1 and 2 of the Shin Hanul site, and four are under construction at Barakah in the United Arab Emirates.
The APR-1400 received design certification by the Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety in May 2003. In October 2017, European Utility Requirements approved the APR1400 reactor design and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified the APR-1400 in August 2019. It is an evolutionary pressurised water reactor based on the CE System 80+ model and was designed by Korea Engineering Company. It supersedes the standardised 995 MWe OPR-1000 design, 12 of which have been constructed in South Korea.
