The Shaw Group Inc. (Shaw Group) and Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (Westinghouse), along with China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and Nuclear Construction Company #5, have announced the placement of the first major structural module at the Sanmen nuclear power plant project. The plant is owned by Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Ltd. (SMNPC) and located in China’s Zhejiang province.
Weighing around 1,020 tons (with rigging apparatus) and measuring 69 feet wide, 44 feet long and 69 feet high, Auxiliary Building Module CA-20 is the largest of the project’s more than 200 structural and mechanical modules. Its placement ranks as one of the heaviest and largest on record for the nuclear energy industry.
In commenting on the CA-20 milestone, Aris Candris, Westinghouse president and chief executive officer, lauded all parties involved with the successful installation. “As with the successful, on-time and on-schedule pour of the first nuclear concrete for the Reactor Building mat earlier this spring, we have again shown that next generation nuclear power plants can be, and are being, built in an efficient and timely manner,” he said. “We have many challenges ahead, but we look forward, with the continued close cooperation of our customer, partners and suppliers, to bringing this plant on line as scheduled in 2013.”
Shaw Group provided engineering and project management services leading up to and throughout the module’s lift and placement, which was executed safely and without incident. The Module CA-20 partially makes up the walls, floors and rooms of the auxiliary building, one of six buildings that comprise the nuclear island of an AP1000™ nuclear power plant.
“The setting of the world’s first major AP1000 structural module is a tremendous engineering, design, fabrication and construction accomplishment,” said Fred Buckman, president of Shaw’s Power Group. “The team’s exceptional performance in bringing all elements together in exact sequence facilitated a successful execution. Shaw is proud to have been part of the team that completed this landmark evolution, which represents the start of advanced modular construction methodology on the world’s first AP1000 nuclear power plant.”
Shaw Group is under contract with SNPTC, SMNPC, Shandong Nuclear Power Company Ltd. and China National Technical Import & Export Corporation to provide engineering, procurement, commissioning, information management and project management services for two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear units being built at Sanmen and another two units under construction at Haiyang in Shandong province.