Fuel Loaded into Chinese Nuclear Power Plant Reactor

MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) – Russian specialists finished loading fuel into the reactor of the first 1,000-megawatt power generating unit of China’s Tianwan nuclear power plant on Wednesday.

A total of 163 cassettes with nuclear fuel provided by the Russian company TVEL were loaded into the reactor, which is a standard amount for this type of reactors. The operation took eight days instead of the usual ten.

It is planned to launch the power generating unit on November 28- 29. A number of experiments will be conducted to check the facility’s safety system before the unit is brought into operation. It is planned to connect the unit to China’s power grid in early January 2006.

The Tianwan nuclear power plant has been built under an intergovernmental agreement signed by Russia and China in 1992. The document also envisioned a credit line for China. A general contract to build the facility was signed in 1997. Russia’s Atompromstroi is the project’s general contractor.

Atompromstroi is also building the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran and two power generating units in India. The company’s contracts abroad are estimated at $4.5 billion.