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The work on installing the reactor dome at the fifth power unit of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in the Chinese province of Fujian has been successfully completed, as Xinhua reports.
The dome is installed on the power unit to protect against emergency situations at nuclear power plants. Works on its installation were originally planned earlier, but due to bad weather conditions, the dome was lifted to the next day.
The third generation reactor “Hualong-1” is the first reactor, which was completely developed by Chinese specialists. The nuclear dome has the shape of a hemisphere with a diameter of 46.8 meters and weighs 340 tons, it consists of 146 steel platinum, whose thickness is only 6 millimeters, thanks to which, despite its large size, the construction has a relatively small weight.
Reaction to the plant dome
According to Wang Shoujun, the successful installation of the reactor dome is of great importance for the further development of the country’s nuclear industry. In particular, for the prospective Hualong-1 project: the successful completion of the project will enhance confidence in him from representatives of other countries, especially partners on the initiative “One belt – one way”, with which China hopes to successfully develop cooperation in the field of nuclear facilities construction.
The construction of the Futsin nuclear power plant was started in 2008. All six power units of the NPP should be completed in 2018. Earlier it was reported that this would create 30 thousand jobs. The first and second power units of the Futsin NPP were put into operation in November 2014 and October 2015, respectively. The capacity of each of the six power units will ultimately be 1 thousand MW. The third power unit was first connected to the power grid in September last year.
The NPP will be put into operation in 2019. The construction of one such nuclear power plant requires about 461 million dollars.
Prospects for cooperation between China nuclear and Russia
With the participation of the Russians near Beijing, an experimental fast neutron reactor has been set up, the next step could be the construction of two similar but significantly improved facilities in Fujian. The Chinese side is negotiating the construction of two BN-800 reactors – the world’s first 880 MW integrated sodium reactors. In general, Russian enterprises, supervised by the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, will participate in all tenders related to the Chinese NPP construction program until 2020.
In addition, plans are being worked out for the joint work of Russian and Chinese nuclear scientists in foreign markets. In particular, we are talking about the joint creation of floating nuclear power plants. Chinese invitation to creation of a joint venture to build and operate floating nuclear power plants assumed that the Chinese side would provide a significant part of the project financing, and will also build barges for power units.
All these events allow observers to talk about the “Nuclear spring” both in the PRC and in the Russian-Chinese energy cooperation. It is possible that it is the RF-China tandem that will rid the nuclear power industry of the bitter hangover of Fukushima.