present status of westinghouse nuclear reactors

AP 1000 nuclear power plant -present status of new build  nuclear reactors (Westinghouse )

Preconstruction and construction activities

Pre construction

Pre -construction activities include excavating  to site, preparing the nuclear concrete, ordering the material with long lead time, and building plant access roads, ware houses, administrative buildings and temporary structures to support a site construction and component assembly activities.

Construction

Construction begin when first concrete is poured as nuclear island  base mat. The nuclear island base mat is a concrete pad that acts on common foundation upon which the containing vessels, the shield building and auxiliary buildings are assembled.

The containment vessel is composed of an elliptical bottom head, a cylindrical shell is typically and elliptical upper head. The cylindrical  shell is typically assembled into three rings for placement vessel . The auxiliary building is used for fuel building and houses   the main operator control room for the plant.

Typical lead time for building AP 1000 nuclear power plant according Westinghouse .

pre  construction time -     18 months
Construction time      -       48 months
Start up time             -          6 months

AP 1000 current new build activities in China 

As industry has been well aware, the worlds first AP 1000 generation 111+ nuclear power plants are under construction in china following the agreement signed  in July 2007 with state nuclear power technology corporation of China for four  AP 1000 units, Westinghouse in consortium with Shaw Group inc is on schedule for first unit in china to begin commercial operation in 2013.

Sanmen   unit 1 &2

Construction began in 2009 on two AP 1000 plants in Sanmen county, Zhejiang province in China . Sanmen and 1 Haiyang construction mile stone have been achieved . Lessons are being learned on these first units . One of them highlights the advantage AP 1000 modular design. A six month delay occurred  in settling the containment vessel bottom head but the subsequent Sanmen construction milestones have been achieved and are back on track because the modular design allowed parrel work. Containment vessel rings 1,2 and 3 have been set on unit 1, with the fourth ring  to be set up in January 2011, while bottom head and ring I have been  installed on unit 2. The major mile stone for Sanmen for unit 1 -to install the reactor vessel and steam generators is expected to be met in 2011.  Commercial operation is scheduled to begin November 2013 for unit 1 and September 2014 for unit 2.

Haying unit 1& 2

Construction began in 2009 as two AP 1000 plants being built in Haiyang,Shandong  province in China. The Haiyang effect already benefiting from lessons learned at Sanmen via reduced component fabrication times. The commercial operation of unit 1 & 2 is schedule to begin May 2014 and March 2015 respectively.

AP-1000   current  new build activities in U.S.

Pre construction work is in progress for four AP 1000 plants in U.S. Laying the ground work for domestic nuclear units to be built in three decades. The construction of these plants will begin once nuclear regularity commission issues the combined  operating licenses (COL)which are expected in 2011.

Vogtle plant

 
Pre construction of two AP 1000 plants under way at Al ini .W. Vogtile  electric generating plant in Waynesboro Georgia (U.S. ). The two new units will supplement the existing earlier generation units 1& 2 to support growing energy consumption unit 3 & 4 are targeted to begin commercial operation)  in April 2016 and April 2017. President Obama  and secretary of energy Steven Chu announced the award of  the first conditional dept of energy federal loan guarantees for nuclear power facility to Georgia power for Vogtle units.

V.C.summer plant


South Carolina electric gas  ( Principal subsidiary of Scana Corporation ) and  San-tee Cooper ( South Carolinas state owned utility) received  approval in 2009 from public service commission of South Carolina(U.S.) to build AP 1000 plants  at V.C.Summer nuclear station in Jenkins-villi,South Carolina(U.S.)  supplement  the existing earlier generation unit 1 .This allowed preconstruction activities to proceed. Westinghouse in consortium with Shaw Group inc is building the infrastructure to support construction, including completion of main plant access  road and bridge excavation unit 2 nuclear Island and installation of more than 400 sections of circulating water system piping. The V.C. Summer project achieved  more than 1.6 million safe work hours without a lost  working day case in September 2010. The first containment vessel plate  schedule to arrive on site at any time ,with bottom head assembly to begin in February. Modular site assembly schedule begin in 2011. Receipt of COL is expected in late 2011 or early 2012. Unit 3 & 4  schedule to begin commercial operation in 2016 and 2019 respectively.


Recent Chinese party  and government leadership in recent report said that the Westinghouse nuclear units works out 4.5 million dollars per MW ( about RS 19.7 crores  per MW) compared to 3.5 million dollars per MW (about  RS 15.4 crores per MW).These costs should be compared with the cost of RS 7 crores to 8 crores per MW of indigenous reactor of PHWR designs.

NPCIL negotiators now have higher cost considerations also to contend with the talks with Westinghouse .

Even AREVA building generation 111 + nuclear reactors plants at Finland and in France are facing undue delay in construction thereby increasing the cost of power per MW .

One thing that favor Westinghouse nuclear reactors is their experience  as half nuclear power plants are built in  world are with Westinghouse design.