Control Room Operational at First AP1000 Nuclear Plant

When Sanmen Nuclear Power Co. and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. declared the main control room at the Sanmen Unit 1 nuclear power plant—currently under construction in China—operational on March 31, it marked the first AP1000 unit to reach that important milestone.

Several instrumentation and control (I&C) systems were integrated and tested before the declaration was made. Plant control, data and display, and the operations and control systems were among them. Commissioning of the 220 V and 10 kV electrical systems, service and instrument air systems, and the demineralized water system were also required before control room operability could be announced.

“The integration of key I&C systems and the operability of the main control room will now facilitate other key testing activities at the world’s first AP1000 nuclear power plant,” said David Howell, senior vice president for Westinghouse Automation and Field Services.

The AP1000 is a Generation III+ reactor utilizing pressurized water design technology. There are currently four of the 1,154-MW units being built in China and four more units under construction in the U.S.—two each at the VC Summer and Plant Vogtle sites. The Sanmen facility is located roughly 200 miles south of Shanghai in the Zhejiang province of China.

—Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine)