Framatome ANP - AREVA

DepartmentsNews in Brief100,000th PWR Fuel Assemblyin ServiceThe 100,000th PWR fuel assemblymade by Framatome ANPwas loaded into a reactor at the endof 2002. No other nuclear vendor inthe world has had so many of its PWRfuel assemblies placed in service. Thefirst of these PWR fuel assemblies wasloaded into the reactor of theFrench Chooz A nuclear power plantin 1966. In Germany, Obrigheimwas the first PWR plant to go on linewith Framatome ANP fuel assembliesin 1968, and the first in the USwere installed in 1973. PWR fuelassemblies manufactured byFramatome ANP are or havebeen deployed in a total of129 reactors in 14 countries.Framatome ANP’s 50,000th BWRfuel assembly is scheduled to go intoservice in the next few months. ■Ling Ao 2 StartsCommercial OperationLing Ao is the secondhigh-capacity nuclear plantto be built in the southernprovince of Guangdong in thePeople’s Republic of China.Unit 2 of the Ling Ao nuclearpower plant started commercialoperation on January 8, 2003, 66 daysahead of the original schedule date.This is a further improvement onthe high performance achieved onLing Ao 1, commissioned on May 28,2002, 48 days ahead of schedule.Ling Ao benefited from the operatingfeedback of over 95 LWRs built allover the world by Framatome ANP.It includes all the latest advancesin safety, availability, systems andequipment reliability, radiationprotection and operating costreduction measures. Ling Ao isthe second high-capacity nuclearplant to be built in the southernprovince of Guangdong in thePeople’s Republic of China, followingDaya Bay whose nuclear islandwas supplied by Framatome ANP.The success of this ambitiousproject is the result of closecooperation between Framatome ANP,Ling Ao Nuclear Power Company(LANPC), the owner-operator, andits Chinese partners.This cooperation dates back toOctober 1995 when a contractwas signed for the supply of two1000 MWe nuclear islands, themanufacture of the first fuel loads andthe launching of a technology transferprogram. The fuel manufacturingplant, located at Yibin in the SichuanProvince, will supply the fuel reloadsfrom the next cycles of Units 1 & 2onwards. The contract also includesa major nuclear equipmentmanufacturing program to becarried out by Chinese suppliers,and technical assistance with assemblyand start-up trials.The construction of two nuclearislands not only met an ambitioustime schedule, it outstripped it.In 1996, the detail designs were drawnup taking into account the specificcharacteristics of the site. Buildingwork started in May 1997. Theassembly of the nuclear island forUnits 1 & 2 started in January andSeptember 1999, respectively. By theend of 2000, almost all the equipmenttogether with supporting documentshad been delivered to the site.Unit 1 went critical for the firsttime on February 4, 2002 and Unit 2on August 27, 2002. The two unitswere hooked up to the network at10% of their full capacity on February26, 2002 and September 14, 2002,respectively. LANPC officiallydeclared Unit 1 commerciallyoperational on May 28, 2002,and Unit 2 on January 8, 2003. ■18 Advanced Nuclear Power N O 7 April 2003