Unit 2 of Phase II of China’s Qinshan NPP in Zhejiang province has been reconnected to the grid following a refuelling and maintenance outage which also saw its power output increased by 33 MWe.
Qinshan, China’s biggest NPP, comprises seven reactors. In Phase I a 300 MWe indigenously-designed pressurised water reactor (PWR) was built in 1985. Phase II comprised four CNP-600 PWRs, built with a high degree of localisation. Units 1 and 2 began operating in 2002 and 2004 and units 3 and 4 in October 2010 and April 2021. In Phase III, two 750 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd were commissioned in 2002 and 2003.
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) subsidiary Qinshan Nuclear Power said some 8,473 tasks were completed during the outage. These included an in-service inspection of pressure vessels; a containment pressure test; a 20-year inspection of the emergency diesel engines; modernisation of main and auxiliary turbine generators; a capacity increase of the generators and the main transformers; and an upgrade of the nuclear island and conventional island switchboards. The stator of the generator was replaced, the first such operation at a Chinese NPP.
Qinshan Nuclear Power said the unit would steadily increase power and complete relevant tests at various power levels until it achieves the transformation design power, with the [net] electric power increased from 670 MWe to 703 MWe, equivalent to an additional 33,000 kWh of electricity per hour.
