French power generation and railway equipment manufacturer and services company Alstom will most certainly be bidding for work on South Africa's planned new pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant.

"We will be bidding our Arabelle steam turbine for the South African project," Alstom vice-president: business development Philippe Anglaret told Engineering News Online exclusively on Thursday at Flamanville in Normandy.

"Arabelle is the most modern nuclear steam turbine design in the world today. It is designed for use with any PWR or boiling water reactor design."

Arabelle is a trademarked name and the first example was commissioned in 1998. The Arabelle is designed to cover the generation range from 1 000 MW to 2 000 MW.

Nuclear power plants are generally subdivided into three elements: a nuclear island, a turbine island, and what is called the balance of the plant. Alstom is concerned with the turbine island, where steam generated in the nuclear island is used to drive turbines and generate electricity.

"Last year, we bid in South Africa as part of the Areva consortium. If Eskom goes for a full turnkey approach to its next nuclear power station, we have to be part of a consortium," he explains. "But if Eskom goes for separate bids for the nuclear island and the turbine island, we would bid separately."

Currently, four Arabelle units are in operation and have accumulated 300 000 operating hours with a reliability level of 99,96%. Another 22 are currently under construction. These 26 Arabelles are composed of one 1 700-MW unit in the US, four 1 550-MW and one 1 750-MW units in France, and 18 1 100-MW and two 1 750-MW units in China.

The 1 750-MW French unit, now being manufactured, is for the Flamanville 3 nuclear power plant, currently being built in Normandy. Flamanville 3 will be the first example of the new European PWR, or EPR, developed by Areva using French and German technology.

Areva is offering the EPR to South Africa for its new PWR. The other bidder is Westinghouse of the US, which is offering its new AP1000 PWR.

Alstom has considerable experience in the nuclear energy sector. The company is responsible for 30% of the turbines employed by the 450 nuclear units currently in operation worldwide. Of the 73 nuclear units ordered from 2003 to 2009, Alstom won the contracts for the turbine island for 33% of them.

Anglaret was involved with South Africa's Koeberg nuclear power plant programme during the 1980s. Koeberg employs two French-designed PWRs.

(Keith Campbell is in France as a guest of the French government).

To subscribe to Engineering News's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.