CHANGWON — Beomhan Mecatec is starting work on a demonstration product as it seeks an order for the containment vessel of the AP1000, a large nuclear reactor designed by U.S.-based Westinghouse.
More than 10 officials from Doosan Enerbility and Westinghouse visited the company's plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Sept. 30 for a meeting and site tour on fabrication of the AP1000 containment vessel, Beomhan Mecatec said on the 2nd.
The project is a stage in which Westinghouse verifies suppliers' fabrication and quality control capabilities before placing the full order for AP1000 containment vessels. Participating companies must build an actual product to demonstrate those capabilities. Westinghouse plans to conduct a final review of the companies that complete the demonstration builds and then select the supplier for full production. If Beomhan Mecatec passes the verification, it could win an order for containment vessel fabrication.
For the demonstration build, Beomhan Mecatec will directly fabricate the cylindrical sections that make up the containment vessel body as well as the upper and lower cover components. It will carry out major processes from steel plate cutting and forming to welding, inspection, heat treatment and painting, and will be assessed on whether it meets Westinghouse's quality standards.
Westinghouse is a global nuclear company that provides reactor design, nuclear fuel, equipment and related services. Since supplying the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor (PWR) in 1957, it has held the original technology for the AP1000 large reactor model.
A containment vessel is a large structure that encloses the reactor's main equipment and isolates it from the outside. It is a core piece of nuclear plant equipment with demanding fabrication precision and quality control standards. Follow-on nuclear projects tied to Korean investment in the United States are also expected to include construction of eight large reactors, comprising six AP1000 units in the U.S. and two Korean-designed APR1400 units.
Beomhan Mecatec cited its equipment and fabrication experience for ultra-large components as its competitive edge. Making the AP1000 containment vessel body requires precisely bending steel plate about 3.9 meters wide into a cylindrical shape. The company owns forming equipment, known as bending rollers, capable of processing steel plate up to 4 meters wide. It said only a limited number of domestic companies have equipment that can handle plate of that size, and that its own staff operate the machinery directly, building up expertise in forming large steel plates.
During the visit, Westinghouse and Doosan Enerbility officials reviewed Beomhan Mecatec's large steel plate forming equipment, heat treatment furnace, inspection facilities and other key production equipment, and examined its fabrication procedures and quality control plans. Participants also discussed the production schedule, inspection methods and measures to ensure quality.
Beomhan Mecatec plans to use the demonstration build to prove its capabilities in fabricating and quality-managing large reactor containment vessels and to expand cooperation with Westinghouse and Doosan Enerbility. The company expects its direct participation in the verification process run by Westinghouse, the holder of the original AP1000 technology, to help it secure a foothold in overseas nuclear supply chains.
"This project is a process in which our large structure fabrication technology and nuclear-grade quality control capabilities are verified through actual production," an official at Beomhan Mecatec said. "We will carry out the project successfully to strengthen cooperation with Westinghouse and Doosan Enerbility and expand opportunities to take part in overseas nuclear projects."
