The two nuclear reactors under construction at the Taishan nuclear power plant in China’s Guangdong Province will not come online until the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018 — some six months later than originally scheduled.
Taishan 1 and 2 are the first two reactors based on French firm Areva’s EPR design to be built in China, Kallanish Energy learns. They form part of an €8 billion ($8.7 billion) contract signed by Areva and China General Nuclear (CGN) in November 2007.
“Following a comprehensive evaluation on the subsequent engineering construction plan and relevant risks, and after due consideration, it has been decided to adjust the construction plan of the Taishan project,” CGN subsidiary CGN Power said, in a Feb. 20 statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The company said since no other EPR units have yet been brought online, “more experimental verifications in respect of its design and equipment” will be conducted at the Taishan units. This, it said, “requires a longer engineering construction time.”
The Taishan project, 87 miles west of Hong Kong, is owned by the Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company Ltd., a joint venture between French utility EDF (30% ownership) and CGN.
Taishan 1 is currently in the commissioning phase. The unit completed cold functional tests in January 2016 and passed a containment pressure test in June. In November, it entered into the early stage of hot functional testing. Unit 2 is in the equipment installation phase.
The first EPR, at Finland’s Olkiluoto plant, has been under construction since 2005, and has seen several revisions to its start-up date, which is now expected by 2018.
The Flamanville EPR in France, on which construction began in 2007, is now expected to come online in late 2018.
