After 50 service cycles and more than 500 hours in operation, the lead reactor coolant pump for Westinghouse’s new AP1000 reactor recently concluded testing.
In a release, Westinghouse said the positive test results will allow the pumps’ installation at China’s Sanmen unit 1, the first AP1000 under construction. The first two pumps will be shipped to the plant this quarter.
China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation Chairman Wang Binghua was quoted as saying the tests demonstrate the companies “have jointly overcome the challenges with the AP1000 RCPs, which are among the most critical components of the AP1000 design … We expect that the successful delivery of the RCPs will ensure that China's first AP1000 unit at Sanmen will go online as projected in 2013.”
Curtiss-Wright business segment Flow Control performed the testing. The firm’s Cheswick, Pa., factory will produce 16 of the pumps for the first four AP1000s in China. Several more AP1000s are under construction in China and the U.S., including two at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Preliminary site work is underway for another two units at the V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina.