Development of Innovative Construction Technologies for ABWRs

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2002

OSTI ID:21167823

Yamashita, T; Fukuda, T; Masuda, N ^[1]

---

1. Tokyo Electric Power Company, 1-1-3 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyodaku, Tokyo, 100-001 (Japan)

This paper describes an effort by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to shorten the construction time in a drastic manner for the Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR), thereby aiming at reducing construction costs. First an outline of the actual construction records for the five BWR Units and the two ABWR Units at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site is introduced along with the construction methods employed for these units. There is a continued trend in the reduction of construction time from Unit 1 to 7 owing to a number of improvements made to these units, and in particular it is noteworthy that the drastic reduction was accomplished due to the change in reactor type from BWR to ABWR. Explained next is an on-going effort for the next ABWR and the following next generation of ABWRs to further shorten construction time. In this effort an emphasis is laid on the development of innovative construction methods by the adoption of steel plate/concrete composite structures (SC Structure), and the application of those structures even to containment vessel (so-called SCCV). This work is being conducted as part of TEPCO's research and development for the next generation ABWRs (ABWR II). Presently it is expected that the construction time from bedrock inspection to fuel loading could be shortened in a stepwise fashion to 38 and 31.5 months for the next ABWR and finally to 23 months for the next generation ABWR II, thus enabling a greatly reduced power generating cost and enhanced safety during construction. In addition to the above effort, a preliminary study has been performed concerning the application of base isolation systems to ABWR plants. From this study which is aimed at standardization, lowered cost and mitigation of engineering work, it was found that base isolation system effectively reduces seismic response and is instrumental in achieving the above-mentioned objectives. Therefore it can be said that the use of this system gives more freedom in selecting sites. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21167823
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CONCRETES
CONSTRUCTION
CONTAINERS
CONTAINMENT
COST
ENGINEERING
INSPECTION
MITIGATION
PLATES
REDUCTION
SAFETY
STANDARDIZATION
STEELS