1. OKG’s Oskarshamn 3 has reached its new maximum thermal capacity, two years later than originally anticipated. The unit’s capacity increased from 1200 MWe to 1450 MWe. It received regulatory approval for one year’s trial operation at 1450 MWe in October 2009. The path to full capacity, however, has not been smooth thanks to problems with turbine equipment. It the largest-capacity BWR (boiler water reactor) in the world.
One of the issues highlighted by OKG is the plant’s sensitivity to variations in the temperature of sea water used for cooling, which will be addressed during the plant’s next maintenance outage.
2. The dome of the reactor building of unit 4 at the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in Liaoning province in northeast China has been successfully lowered into place The next stage involves the installation of heavy reactor system components within the building. Unit 4 is scheduled to start up in 2014.
A ceremony to mark the breaking of ground for Phase II of the Hongyanhe plant – comprising a further two CPR-1000 units – was held in July 2010. All six units at the site are expected to be in operation by the end of 2016.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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