Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has made an application to the US authorities for certification of its Advanced Pressurised Water Reactor (APWR) design, a move that will allow the first US-AWPR project to progress towards actual plant construction.
MHI’s APWR for the US market is a 1700 MWe reactor that will achieve the world’s highest level of thermal efficiency for a nuclear reactor. It has a 24 month refuelling cycle and is based on a 1500 MWe APWR planned for the Tsuruga power station in Japan.
Texas-based Luminant Power has already selected MHI’s design for its planned new nuclear units at Comanche Peak near Dallas. According to MHI, several other electricity providers in the US are also showing “strong interest” in the US-APWR.
MHI says that it now intends to take advantage of growing opportunities in the US nuclear market by promoting the US-APWR design to utilities.
In parallel with the design certification (DC) application made to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), MHI is preparing an application for a combined construction and operating licence for the proposed new plant at Comanche Peak.
In July 2006 MHI established MHI Nuclear Energy Systems, Inc. (MNES), a US-based wholly owned subsidiary to realise early introduction of the US-APWR into the USA. The company believes that dozens of new nuclear power plants will be built in the USA over the next 25 years.
The US-APWR is based on MHI’s existing APWR technology but has been modified for the US market. The unit is designed to reach a thermal efficiency of 39 per cent and also achieve a 20 per cent reduction in plant building volume over the current design.
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