The CA01 'super module' has been installed at unit 1 of the Lianjiang nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province, the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute announced. It is the first of two CAP1000 reactors planned for the first phase of the plant.

The CA01 module is hoisted into place (Image: SNERDI)

Weighing 1066 tonnes and measuring more than 27 metres long, 29 metres wide and 24 metres high, the concrete and steel CA01 module - composed of 47 sub-modules - sits inside the unit's containment module where it will house the plant's reactor pressure vessel, steam generators and other components. It is referred to as a super module because it is too large to be transported by road and rail, and was constructed on site.

The module was hoisted into place at Lianjiang 1 on 13 April in a process lasting 3 hours and 18 minutes.

The module in place within the containment building (Image: SNERDI)

The CAP1000 reactor design - the Chinese version of the AP1000 - uses modular construction techniques, enabling large structural modules to be built at factories and then installed at the site.

The largest and heaviest module - the cuboid-shaped CA20 - was installed at Lianjiang 1 in November.

The construction of the first two 1250 MWe CAP1000 reactors at the Lianjiang site was approved by China's State Council in September 2022. Excavation works for the units began in the same month, with the pouring of first concrete for the foundation of unit 1 completed at the end of September last year. Lianjiang unit 1 is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2028.

Once all six CAP1000 units at the site are completed, the annual power generation will be about 70.2 TWh, which will reduce standard coal consumption by more than 20 million tonnes, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 52 million tonnes, sulphur dioxide by about 171,000 tonnes and nitrogen oxides by about 149,000 tonnes.

State Power Investment Corp says the Lianjiang plant will be the first nuclear power project in China to adopt seawater secondary circulation cooling technology as well as the first to use a super-large cooling tower.