The Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the HPR1000 as a key part of the “going global” of China’s nuclear power construction.   

Thus on April 21, after consultations on the main components of HPR1000 equipment at the Fuqing Nuclear Power site and Harbin Electric Corp (HE) headquarters, Qian Zhimin, president of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), visited Austria to conduct further consultations on the HPR1000. He reached agreement with the Austrian party on the supply of Fuqing Nuclear Power No 5 and No 6 main pumps and promised that delivery of the HPR1000 first reactor project would be on schedule.

Qian Zhimin, together with HE president Zou Lei and Andritz president and CEO Woflgang Leitner, inspected the equipment manufacturing process at the Andritz plant. They discussed the production situation and inherent performance risks, based on which they proposed measures to upgrade interface management, enlarge the equipment’s raw material storage, set up a quick response mechanism, strengthen on-site technological support and enhance capabilities for dealing with unexpected incidents.

As the core part of nuclear power plant primary circuitry, the main pump plays a crucial role in a project. However, its production is difficult and takes a long time. Consequently, CNNC has coordinated production of the main part of HPR1000 equipment several times. In December 2015 Qian Zhimin led a delegation to the Fuqing Nuclear Power site, which was followed by discussions with HE headquarters in Beijing and Harbin. Those steps led to delineation of the critical path nodes and defined works in the preliminary period. Then on Chinese New Year’s Eve 2016 Qian organized a coordination meeting by video with HE, improving their cooperation methods to ensure the scheduled supply of HPR1000 demonstration project equipment would be available.