China Set to Fire Up World’s First AP1000 Nuclear Reactor
- Sanmen No. 1 to be ready for commercial operations Friday
- New reactor approvals seen dependent on successful startup
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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China will soon be ready to start commercial operations of the world’s first next-generation AP1000 nuclear reactor, possibly setting off a renewed push by the country into atomic power after years of delays and billion-dollar cost blowouts.
The No. 1 reactor at the Sanmen power plant, designed by Westinghouse Electric Co., is expected to be ready for commercial operations Friday after completing a 168-hour test run, Shanghai-listed China National Nuclear Power Co. said in a statement to the exchange Thursday. It didn’t say when the unit, in the eastern Zhejiang province, will officially enter commercial power production.