Nuclear Revolution: World's first AP1000 power plant in China starts fueling

The world’s first AP1000 third-generation nuclear unit started fueling on April 25 in east China’s Zhejiang Province, a much-awaited landmark in China’s actualization of the advanced technology, bringing the country a step closer to the mass-production and export of the third-generation nuclear facilities.

Permitted by National Nuclear Safety Administration of China, 157 fuel assemblies were loaded into the honeycomb core of the 1250 MW No.1 unit reactor of Sanmen Nuclear Power Station, marking the start of the plant’s trial run.

Qian Zhimin, Chairman of energy behemoth State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), lead developer and contractor of the project, has vowed to put the unit into operation this year.

SPIC introduced the third-generation pressurized water reactor design AP1000 (AP = Advanced Passive) from the U.S. company Westinghouse Electric Corporation in November 2006. Since then, China has built two AP1000 units in Sanmen and another two units in Haiyang, east China’s Shandong Province.

http://en.people.cn/business/n3/2018/0427/c90778-9454395.html

Westinghouse designed the AP1000. Westinghouse was sold to Toshiba, and it figures prominently in Toshiba's financial crisis. Westinghouse is essentially defunct. China purchased the AP1000 design along the way, and is both building copies and using it as a base for improved Chinese designs.