Replacement Reactor Vessel Head arrives to site

The replacement reactor vessel head arrived to South Texas Project on Feb. 11. The reactor vessel weighs 192.5 tons, equivalent to a Boeing 747-400. The vessel head will be attached to unit 2, on the refueling and maintenance outage in the spring.
The replacement reactor vessel head arrived to South Texas Project on Feb. 11. The reactor vessel weighs 192.5 tons, equivalent to a Boeing 747-400. The vessel head will be attached to unit 2, on the refueling and maintenance outage in the spring.
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  • By Adriana Acosta •
  • Originally published February 18, 2010 at 8:37 a.m., updated February 18, 2010 at 8:37 a.m.

It arrived in the middle of the night.

Escorted by police through its long journey.

The Replacement Reactor Vessel Head made its way from Kobe, Japan through the Panama Canal and to the Port of Houston. Its voyage was a total of 9,871 nautical miles.

The reactor vessel then took a 110-mile trip from the Port of Houston to the South Texas Project site, taking two days at an average speed of five miles per hour.

The vessel was transported in the night for safety reasons and for low traffic.

“The vessel was heavily escorted and we worked with local law enforcement as well as with the Texas Department of Transportation to assist in the transportation,” said Buddy Eller, Director of Communication and Public Affairs.

The vessel head for unit 2 will be installed during the outage in late March, Eller said.

The same procedure was done during the unit 1 refueling and maintenance outage last fall.

The reactor vessel is a new technology that was not available when commercial nuclear facilities were constructed 30 years ago.

“The reactor vessel head is part of the continuous improvement plan for the plant,” he added.

Quick Facts

· The reactor vessel head weighs 192.5 tons, equivalent to a Boeing 747-400, and is 38 feet long and 18 feet wide. The reactor vessel head costs $34.6 million.

· The head was transported from the Port of Houston to the South Texas Project site on a 112-wheel, 145-foot-long heavy haul vehicle.

· The head is attached to the reactor with 36 huge bolts. Each bolt is more than

7 feet long and weighs more than 1,300 pounds.

· The head was forged, from a single ingot, at Japan Steel Works.

· The vessel head was fabricated and machined at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

· The old heads will be stored temporarily on site, then decommissioned and stored permanently at another location.



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