South Korean APR-1400 starts up
The 1350 MWe pressurised water reactor reached first criticality at 11.00am on the 22 May, KHNP said.
"In the future, Shin Hanul Unit 1 plans to produce electricity for the first time early next month after undergoing a performance test of the power plant system with safety as the top priority," the company said.
Ground breaking for the first two units at the Shin Hanul (formerly Shin Ulchin) site took place in May 2012. First concrete for unit 1 was poured two months later, with that for unit 2 following in June 2013. The reactors were originally expected to enter service in April 2017 and April 2018, respectively. Following delays, fuel loading in unit 1 had been scheduled for June 2019 but was postponed pending safety checks by the Nuclear Safety and Security Committee (NSSC) and some modifications. Commercial operation of unit 1 was then expected in July 2021, and unit 2 in May 2022, but there have been further delays.
On 9 July 2021, the NSSC gave its conditional approval for the start-up of Shin Hanul 1. KHNP began loading the first of the fuel assemblies into the core of the reactor five days later. KHNP announced on 13 October that, following the completion of fuel loading, it was conducting reactor physics and systems testing under normal operating temperature and pressure conditions. In July, the company said these tests were expected to take about eight months to complete.
The APR-1400 is an evolutionary pressurised water reactor with its origins in the CE System 80+ model. Principally designed by Korea Engineering Company, it produces 1400 MWe and has a 60-year design life. It supersedes the standardised 995 MWe OPR-1000 design, of which South Korea built 12. The APR-1400 features improvements in operation, safety, maintenance and affordability based on accumulated experience as well as technological development.
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