Steel Dome of Unit 1 at Liaoning Xudabao Nuclear Power Plant Hoisted into Place

On August 28, the steel dome of the nuclear island of Unit 1 at Liaoning Xudabao Nuclear Power Plant, invested and controlled by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)'s China National Nuclear Power, was hoisted into place, marking that the large steel structure module construction of the unit has entered its final stage and laying a solid foundation for achieving the milestone of structural completion of the nuclear island buildings.

As the core load-bearing structure of the nuclear island, the steel dome sits atop the steel-plate concrete structure, bearing all loads from the passive containment cooling water storage tank and the structures above. It serves as a critical barrier safeguarding the structural integrity and sealing reliability of the reactor building. The dome is conical in shape, composed of radial main beams, ring beams, steel cladding panels, and a bottom steel platform, with a diameter of approximately 41 meters, a height of 11 meters, and a total hoisting weight of nearly 1,000 tons.

Liaoning Nuclear Power, in coordination with all participating construction units, fully leveraged mature construction experience from steel dome hoisting of similar units, completing the review of the special construction plan and full-process simulation rehearsal in advance. At the construction site, the work team strictly implemented refined safety and quality control requirements, coordinated cross-disciplinary overlapping operations, and comprehensively prevented various hoisting risks such as component deformation, equipment collision, and center-of-gravity deviation. With high-standard control ensuring the hoisting operation was "flawless and absolutely safe," the nuclear island steel dome was ultimately hoisted into place with precision in a single lift.

The Xudabao Nuclear Power Project plans to construct six million-kilowatt-class pressurized water reactor nuclear power units, with overall planning and phased construction. The total installed capacity of the six units exceeds 7.6 million kilowatts. Once the project is fully completed, it will provide nearly 54 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, save 19.2 million tons of standard coal per year, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 56.7 million tons annually, equivalent to the annual absorption capacity of 360,000 hectares of forest.