Power start-up of Tianwan NPP (TNPP) power unit No.4 being constructed in China under the Russian NPP design with VVER-1000 reactors took place on October 27 2018 at 01:53 msk. The fourth power unit produced the first kilowatts of output to the national grid system.
In compliance with the permit obtained from the Chinese regulatory authority the reactor plant of power unit No.4 was brought to 25%, followed by the turbine push start and the electrical tests of the excitation and power output systems. This work resulted in the power unit connection to the power system. All the power unit systems were operating in the design mode.
According to Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, ‘Tianwan NPP currently is the largest Russian-Chinese power project that is being developed successfully due to the synergism of specialists from two countries. And start-up of the fourth power unit is a further proof thereof. At the Tianwan NPP site we became a united team with our Chinese colleges, which facilitates the result achievement. Surely our further cooperation both in the construction of the next stages of Tianwan NPP and on a new Xudapu site shall also be efficient and fruitful’.
Further we have to check the reactor operation at the 200 MW output and perform the dynamic tests at the power levels of 50%, 75% and 100%. Upon successful passing of the tests the demonstration tests of the power unit continuous operation at the rated load shall be performed during 100 hours. Upon its completion a preliminary acceptance of the power unit shall be performed that shall become a benchmark for a two-year guarantee operation of the power unit.
According to Valery Limarenko, Head of ROSATOM’s Engineering Division, power start-up of Tianwan NPP fourth power unit is another victory of the team of Russian and Chinese specialists. ‘Our partnership lasting for several decades provides additional confidence in further successful continuation of our work, we have even greater challenges ahead on construction of four power units of the VVER-1200 project, the VVER-1000 project evolutionary design’, he said.
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Tianwan NPP is the largest facility of the Russian-Chinese economic cooperation. Start-up of Tianwan NPP power units 1 and 2 was held in 2007. The power start-up of Tianwan NPP power unit 3 took place in December 2017.
The cooperation in construction of the second stage — Units No.3 and No.4 of Tianwan NPP is carried out based on the Protocol signed by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People’s Republic of China. Tianwan NPP design is based on the Russian project AES-91 with reactor type VVER-1000, which fully meets the requirements of up-to-date regulatory and technical documents of China, Russian Federation and IAEA. Construction of Tianwan nuclear power plant is being carried out by Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation (JNPC) in cooperation with Russian company Atomstroyexport included in ASE Group of Companies.
