SCANA Corporation subsidiary South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) said Tuesday that the company had accomplished two construction milestones at V.C. Summer’s Unit 3 this week, including the placement of the 32-metric ton CAO4 module on the containment vessel bottom head.
The module is 27 feet tall and 21 feet wide and is considered a “super module,” in that it was too large to transport fully assembled. As such, its five sub-modules were constructed at MetalTek International subsidiary SMCI in Lakeland, Fla., with welders completing final fabrication on the V.C. Summer construction site in the 12-story Module Assembly Building.
CA04 was then lifted into place by one of the world’s largest cranes, the company said in a statement. The “heavy lift derrick … stands about 560-feet tall,” SCE&G said.
The other milestone for the week was the delivery of the reactor vessel, which was shipped on a Schnabel specialty rail car designed for heavy loads.
Once the CA04 is fully encased in concrete, the reactor vessel will be lowered into it and mounted on top, the statement said.
About 3,500 construction workers are at the site, where construction for Unit 2 began in March 2013 with Unit 3 construction begun in November of that year. The CA04 module for Unit 2 has been in place since September 2013.
The two 1,117-megawatt AP1000 units will add approximately 800 permanent jobs when operational, SCE&G said.