Development of medium sized ABWR (ABWR-600, ABWR-900)

Hitachi has been developing the Medium sized ABWR as a power source that features flexibility to various market needs, such as minimized capital risks, timely return on a capital investment, etc. Basic design policy of the Medium sized ABWR is 1) to be based on ABWR design with superior experiences in construction and operation, 2) to utilize standard BWR fuel adopting proven technology, 3) to achieve rationalized design by suitably utilizing the key components developed for large sized reactor. Development of the Medium sized ABWR has been working to proceed step by step. The first step was to design an output scale of the 600 MWe class (ABWR-600), which is appropriate for a distributed power-supply. The next step we start developing of the up-rated to an output scale of the 900 MWe class (ABWR-900) based on ABWR-600 rationalized technology for further cost saving. (author)