Chen Hua, chairman of the China National Nuclear Power Corporation, has said that the first completed Westinghouse-designed AP1000 reactor would reach first criticality by the end of June and that it remained on track to enter commercial operations status by the end of November, Science Daily reported.
Unit 1 at Sanmen NPP in Zhejiang province is about five years behind schedule after a series of design and supply chain problems that contributed to China turning to other reactor models for at least eight projects where the Westinghouse model was previously considered the forerunner. According to Nuclear Engineering International, the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor was the designated model for eight future projects — Zhangzhou Units 1-4, Taipingling Units 1-2 and Fengchenggang Units 5-6 — but China turned to other models as confidence in Westinghouse dropped, a Commerce Department-sponsored report said. The white paper, "China Nuclear Industry 2017-2018: A Tightly Coiled Spring," noted that "the phenomenon (of China turning to other models for the eight projects) isn't being viewed … as a technological victory for the HPR1000 versus the AP1000 … but rather as an indication of the utilities' vote of low confidence n Westinghouse and the AP1000 in general."
Westinghouse declared bankruptcy in March 2017 in a large part due to the lack of new orders, while AP1000 projects in Georgia, South Carolina and China were hit by long delays and cost overruns. The two AP1000 reactor projects in South Carolina were closed down in July 2017.
Contracts were also signed in 2016 for two AP1000 projects which were to be Units 1 and 2 at Xudabao, Parts manufactured for a four-AP1000 project in Hunan province — at the Taohuajiang nuclear power plant — were re-assigned for the Xudabao project and steel containment manufacturing had been planned by July 2013. By June, however, China had turned to Rosatom for construction of four VVER-1200 reactors, Units 3 and 4 at Xudabao and Units 7 and 8 at Tiawan in Jiangsu province, Nuclear Engineering International said.