Kashiwazaki-Kariwa

The world's first two Advanced BWRs are under construction at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa BWR nuclear station in Japan. Fuel will be loaded into the first of these in February 1996 with a view to the reactor going into service in December. A technical description of the ABWRs was published previously and only some of the new developments are described in this paper. These include: the use of internal recirculation pumps; a new design of cylindrical reinforced concrete containment vessel which has considerable advantages for seismic considerations; a reactor core design which produces a higher thermal output than a conventional 1100 MWe BWR and gives better axial power distributions and higher burnups; an advanced control room using digital technology for reactor protection, instrumentation and control; turbine generators with an electrical output of 1356 MW each using moisture separators and two stages of reheat which together with improved turbine design have enhanced thermal efficiency from 33.4 to 34.5%. Other differences between the ABWR and current BWRs are presented in tabular form. A note on Tokyo Electric Power's public relations operation with respect to the development of the station is included. [7 figures, 3 tables]. (UK)