The emergency core cooling system tank has been shipped for Xudabao 4. The eighty-ton tank, which has a capacity of eighty cubic yards, was produced at the Petrozavodskmash plant of Rosatom’s machine-building division. The ceremonial shipment marked the plant’s sixty fifth anniversary.
The emergency core cooling system tank is a thick-walled high-pressure vessel about three yards in diameter. It will be filled with an aqueous solution of boric acid which will be automatically fed into the reactor to cool the active zone in the event of a pressure drop in the primary cooling circuit.
Each reactor’s emergency core cooling safety system includes four of the tanks, with the fourth and final one for reactor 4 to be shipped during June of this year.
In June of 2018, Russia and China signed four agreements, which included the construction of two VVER-1200 reactors at the new Xudabao (also known as Xudapu) site in China’s Liaoning province. Agreements signed in June of 2019 included a general contract for the construction of Xudabao reactors 3 and 4, as well as a contract for the supply of nuclear fuel.
Construction of Xudabao reactor 3 began in July 2021, with that of reactor 4 starting in May 2022. Commissioning of the reactors is scheduled for 2027 and 2028, respectively.
When completed, the two reactors are expected to generate more than eighteen billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. This is equivalent to saving about six and a half million tons of coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about nineteen million tons per year.
The Xudabao plant is owned by Liaoning Nuclear Power Company Limited, which is a joint venture between China National Nuclear Corporation (seventy percent) Datang International Power Generation Company (twenty percent) and State Development and Investment Corporation (ten percent).
Igor Kotov is the head of the Rosatom Machine-Building Division. He said, “Rosatom’s machine builders have now manufactured ninety-five percent of the contracted equipment for the four new power reactors being built at the Tianwan and Xudapu nuclear power plants. Circulation pipelines, main circulation pump housings, equipment for safety systems and much, much more have been shipped from Petrozvodskmash. By the end of 2025, the manufacture of all components involved in the operation of the nuclear island will be completed.”
Andrey Nikipelov is the Deputy Director General of the Rosatom State Corporation for Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Solutions. He said, “Petrozavodskmash produces equipment that is unique for the industry and participates in all Rosatom projects for the construction of nuclear power plants. In the coming years, the company will have a lot more work.”
Artur Parfenchikov is the head of the Republic of Karelia in northwest Russia where the plant is located. He said, “Petrozavodskmash makes a great contribution to the economy and industrial development of Karelia … and in this anniversary year, we honor the veterans of the plant, talk about achievements … it creates new jobs, increases the tax base of our budget … [and] is an interesting and promising place to work for our Karelian youth.”.