AP1000
The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse Electric Company, now majority owned by Toshiba. The plant is a pressurized water reactor with improved use of passive nuclear safety. The first AP1000 is expected to start operations in 2017 in China.
In December 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the final design certification for the AP1000. This meant that prospective US builders could apply for a Combined Construction and Operating License before construction starts, the validity of which is conditional upon the plant being built as designed, and that each AP1000 should be identical. Its design is the first Generation III+ reactor to receive final design approval from the NRC. In 2008 China started building four units of the AP1000's 2005-design.
Aspects of the AP1000 design have been questioned and disputed by senior scientists and engineers including John Ma (of the NRC), Edwin Lyman, and Arnold Gundersen. In December 2011, the NRC approved construction of the first US plant to use the design. On February 9, 2012 the NRC approved the construction of two new reactors.
The AP1000 is a pressurized water reactor with two cooling loops, planned to produce a net power output of 1,117 MWe. It is an evolutionary improvement on the AP600, essentially a more powerful model with roughly the same footprint.
A design objective was to be less expensive to build than other Generation III designs, by both using existing technology, and needing less equipment than competing designs that have three or four cooling loops. The design decreases the number of components, including pipes, wires, and valves. Standardization and type-licensing should also help reduce the time and cost of construction. Because of its simplified design compared to a Westinghouse generation II PWR, the AP1000 has:
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