AP1000 APWR

AP100013 (Westinghouse BNFL): Quite often when a reactor is named, its name includes digits such as the "1000" in the AP1000. This usually indicates the initial electricity generating capacity of the design, in this case 1000 MWe. Seldom do the digits indicate the present design capacity as the design evolves. The most recent AP1000 design has been bid in China with a 1175 MW-capacity. The AP1000 is an enlargement of the AP600, designed to almost double the reactor's target output without proportionately increasing the total cost of building the reactor. Westinghouse anticipates that operating costs are anticipated to be below the average of reactors now operating in the United States. While Westinghouse BNFL owns rights to several other designs, the AP1000 is the principal product that the company now promotes in the United States for near term construction. The AP1000 is a PWR with innovative, passive safety features and a much simplified design intended to reduce the reactor’s material and construction costs while improving operational safety. One consortium of nine utilities called NuStart Energy promotes the AP1000 in the United States and has informed the NRC that it intends to apply for a combined construction and operating license (COL) for the design. This is not a commitment to build the design. Westinghouse submitted a bid in early 2005 to build as many as four AP1000s at two sites in China.