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| AP600 Pressurizer The AP600
pressurizer is based on the standard Westinghouse design currently used in approximately
70 operating plants worldwide. Westinghouse pressurizers are a technology with over 30
years of successful operating experience. The AP600 pressurizer is 1600 cubic feet, which
is about 30 percent larger than would normally be used in a plant of comparable power
rating. |
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| The larger pressurizer increases transient operation
margins and eliminates the need for relief valve actuation, which results in a more
reliable plant that will have fewer reactor trips and that will require less time to
recover after a transient. It also eliminates the need for power-operated relief valves,
which eliminates a possible source of RCS leakage and maintenance. The AP600
pressurizer heaters are similar in design to those employed in operating Westinghouse
PWRs. The heaters are vertically mounted, extending up through penetrations in the bottom
head of the pressurizer shell. They are also individually seal-welded to the penetrations
providing the system pressure boundary. The pressurizer heaters are one of the many
components that have achieved very good overall performance in operating plants. |
      
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