Wiki · PWR · United States
Westinghouse 2-, 3- and 4-loop
The original PWR: one steam generator and one pump per loop, and the number of loops sets the power.
Westinghouse developed the PWR from Rickover's naval reactors. Shippingport, in 1957, was the first commercial unit. The 1970s designs are classified by loop count: two loops for about 600 MWe, three for 900 to 1,000 and four for 1,100 to 1,300 MWe. Each loop has its own U-tube steam generator and reactor coolant pump.
It is the basis of most PWRs in the world: Framatome's French CP1 and CP2, Mitsubishi's Japanese units, first-generation Korean plants and the Chinese CPR-1000 all descend from the three-loop Westinghouse license. Combustion Engineering and Babcock & Wilcox built their own variants with two large steam generators.
Quick facts
| Power | 600 to 1,300 MWe depending on loops |
|---|---|
| Pressure | 155 bar |
| Fuel | 17 × 17, enriched to 4 to 5% |
| Examples | Diablo Canyon, Vogtle 1-2, Ringhals 3-4, Doel 4 |