China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) said it had completed testing of the containment vessel of the second AP1000 unit under construction at the Sanmen nuclear plant in Zhejiang province.
The tests included a structural integrity test and an integrated leak rate test. Sanmen 1 completed the containment tests in November 2015. SNPTC announced in May hydraulic testing had been completed of the two-loop primary circuit at Sanmen 1, which will now undergo a series of three thermals tests before being loaded with fuel and started up in September. Sanmen 2 is also expected to start up this year.
Progress was also reported at China’s other AP1000 project. The fuel building at Haiyang 2 in Shandong province is ready to receive fuel, SNPTC announced on 5 June. Testing of the building's systems, including the fuel handling and refuelling system, the used fuel pool cooling system and fire protection system, had been completed on 31 May. The unit is expected to begin operation in 2018. The integrated head package was installed on top of the AP1000 reactor pressure vessel of Haiyang 1 earlier in May, ready for start up by the end of this year.
Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the Sanmen AP1000 had a three-loop primary circult. The AP1000 is in fact a two-loop design.
