Recently, Shanghai Electric Power Generation Equipment Co., Ltd. Generator Plant (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Generator Plant”), together with China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. and Deyang Wanxin, jointly developed the first set of domestically produced 1300MW nuclear power generator retaining ring forgings, which successfully passed the acceptance test of a group of experts composed of authoritative persons from CGN, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Shanghai Generator Plant.

They believed that the retaining ring forgings meet the requirements of the technical agreement for trial production under the strict testing of both the supply and demand sides, and some of the performance indexes significantly exceed the technical requirements, reaching the production level of imported retaining ring forgings, marking a great breakthrough in the localization of 1000MW nuclear power retaining ring forgings.

1000MW nuclear retaining ring forgings are the key for nuclear power units, the diameter of which is much larger than that of conventional thermal power retaining ring forgings, and its cold expansion deformation and uniformity control is much more difficult, which is the bottleneck problem in the localization of nuclear power units. In March 2023, Shanghai Generator Plant, China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd. and Deyang Wanxin set up a joint development team to carry out the research and development of 1300MW nuclear generator retaining ring forgings at CGN Lufeng nuclear power project.

In the trial process, the R&D team not only strictly followed the standard requirements of conventional imported nuclear retaining ring forgings, but also set up additional trial requirements such as hardness uniformity, grain size, stress corrosion and fracture toughness. After more than a year, the forgings were finally ready for acceptance, giving a strong impetus to the independent development of China's nuclear power industry.

The successful development of the first set of domestically produced 1300MW nuclear generator retaining ring forgings not only breaks the long-standing foreign technological monopoly in the field and promotes the independent development of China's nuclear power industry, but also lays the foundation for the development of 1500MW nuclear retaining ring forgings.