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Nuclear power plant operation
The first-ever large commercial nuclear power station in Mainland China, GNPS comprises two Pressurized Waters Reactors (PWR) of 984 MWe each. The electric output of GNPS is around 15 billion KWHs per annum, with 70% supplied to Hong Kong and 30% to Guangdong. GNPS had been constructed and operated under the pattern of “starting at a significant height to introduce, digest, absorb and innovate” and “constructing with loans, repaying loans with revenue from electricity sales and joint venture operations”. The main structural work was commenced in July 1987, and on May 6, 1994, GNPS was put into commercial operation. A product of China’s Reform and Opening-up Policy, GNPS represents a meaningful attempt at modern enterprise system in the country.
Since its commercial operation, GNPS had maintained safe and stable operations for 13 years in a row with its various economic and technical performance indicators on a par with the advanced performance level within the international context. Since 1999, the plant has taken part in the Safety Challenge competitions organized by the Electricité de France (EDF). Of the accumulated 26 challenge items in four areas, GNPS won 14 first prizes while competing with 64 similar French units. On May 13, 2006, Unit 1 of GNPS completed its first ten-year outage 12.94 days ahead of schedule. It became the first domestic nuclear power plant, which had completed all the critical path of its lifespan except decommissioning. On March 9, 2006, Unit 1 of GNPS realized a new domestic record of 485-day continuous safe operation in one single cycle. As of March 31, 2007, the unit maintained continuous safety operation for a new national record of 1738 days and the record continues. In 2006, GNPS had achieved a grid off-take of 14.858 billion KWHs with the capacity factor reached 90.1%. Compared with the 9 World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) Performance Indicators, all indicators of GNPS in 2006 have exceeded the intermediate level of the world average figures, and 2 indicators have reached the top quartile level. As compared with the generation at the beginning of commercial operation since 1994, the annual generation of GNPS has increased to 14.9 billion KWHs from 10 billion KWHs forecasted in the Feasibility Study Report. The core meltdown probability has decreased to 1.03Ⅹ10-5 from 1.24Ⅹ10-5, better than the safety level of European and American units. As of March 31, 2007, GNPS had realized a cumulative off-take of 173.9 billion KWHs, of which 117.8 billion had been supplied to Hong Kong
, and repaid a cumulative total of USD 5.444 billion, principal plus interest, fulfilling 95.9% of the total repayment commitments.
The construction and operation of GNPS have successfully turned into reality the burgeoning of the large commercial nuclear power stations in mainland China and achieved the target of development of nuclear power construction at a leapfrogging pace with a view to overtaking the pacesetters in the nuclear power industry world-wide. In so doing, CGNPG has been able to lay a solid foundation for the accelerated development of nuclear power in China and contributing to the economic and social development in both Guangdong and Hong Kong.
LNPS Phase I is the second large commercial nuclear power station constructed by CGNPG in Guangdong in accordance with the State Council’s guideline of “utilizing returns from existing nuclear power capacity to nurture further growth of nuclear power in a rolling-on manner”. Comprised of two PWRs of 990 MWe each, LNPS Phase I took GNPS as its reference with a total of 52 significant improvements made. Self-reliance capabilities had been realized for project management, construction, installation, commissioning and operation preparation. Partial self-reliance in engineering and partial localization of equipment manufacture had been has been achieved with an overall ratio of the latter reached 30%. In all, more than 180 domestic companies had taken part in the equipment manufacturing activities associated with the project. LNPS Phase I commenced on May 15, 1997, and had been fully wrapped up on January 8, 2003, 66 days ahead of the schedule, leading in a total of USD 381 million of cost savings, viz. 10% against the budget approved by the State authorities. The overall performance of the station has already reached the advanced ranks of operating nuclear power stations of similar design worldwide. In November 2002, the Pre-OSART (Pre-Operational Safety Assessment Review Team) mission assigned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to LNPS Phase I drew the conclusion that “most of the performance indicators applied at LNPS are comparable to the latest IAEA International Safety Codes, and LNPS achievements to date will be invaluable references for the global nuclear power industry.”
Ever since the two units were made commercially available, they have maintained good operations with safety and quality. On February 17, 2004, Unit 1 set a record of maintaining continuous safe operations over 592 days spanning over two refueling cycles without unplanned reactor shutdowns. On August 21, 2005, Unit 2 had set the world record of having experienced no unplanned reactor and turbine shutdown from its initial criticality and commercial operation over a period of 935 days. In 2006, LNPS had achieved a grid off-take of 15.062 billion KWHs with the capacity factor reached 91.3%, and compared with the 9 WANO Performance Indicators for units of similar design, all the indicators of LNPS had exceeded the world intermediate level and 4 had entered the top quartile level. As of March 31, 2007, the station had generated a cumulative total of 63.6 billion KWHs, and had repaid a total of USD 1.546 billion, principal plus interest, representing 31.56% of the total loan repayment commitments.
Construction of LNPS Phase I embodies the concrete result of the implementation of the guideline of “utilizing returns from existing nuclear power capacity to nurture further growth of nuclear power in a rolling-on manner”. The invaluable experiences contribute greatly to the industry’s development in the country and serve as a solid foundation for further technological innovation in the field and the realization of CPR 1000, a Chinese PWR of its own right. The experiences also help to improve the self-reliance and localization capabilities associated with the large commercial nuclear power stations of the 1000 MWe class. At the same time, LNPS phase I has significantly alleviated the dire shortage of electric power supply in Guangdong Province.
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