Tianwan Unit 7 Connects to Grid in China
Tianwan Unit 7, a VVER-1200 reactor, delivered its first electricity to the grid on October 8. This occurred just over a week after the reactor achieved a self-sustaining controlled nuclear chain reaction and reached a minimum controllable power level. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) stated that all parties involved in the Sino-Russian project collaborated on key operations, including reactor protection logic verification, reactor criticality, turbine start-up, and generator short-circuit tests.
The unit is scheduled to undergo a series of tests to verify its performance and ensure it meets the conditions for commercial operation. Power at the unit will be increased in stages, with tests and checks conducted at each level until it reaches full power and commercial operation.
Construction of Unit 7 began in May 2021, with Unit 8 starting in February 2022. Both units were scheduled for commercial operation in 2026 and 2027, respectively. The Tianwan nuclear power plant is located on the coast in Jiangsu province and is owned and operated by Jiangsu Nuclear Power Company, a joint venture involving CNNC (50%), China Power Investment Corporation (30%), and Jiangsu Guoxin Group (20%).
The first four units at the Tianwan site, which began commercial operation between June 2007 and December 2018, are Gidropress VVER units supplied by Russia. Units 5 and 6 utilize Chinese ACPR1000 reactors. In January, CNNC announced the completion of hot tests for Unit 7 on December 30. Cold tests for Unit 8 were completed earlier this month. Once all units at the Tianwan plant are operational, the total installed capacity is projected to exceed 9 GWe, with an annual power generation of over 70 TWh, which is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 57.4 million tonnes annually.
