Nuclear Energy News

Westinghouse Orders IHI to Supply Poland’s First AP1000 Containment Module

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Westinghouse Electric Company has placed an order with Japan’s IHI Corporation to begin engineering and procurement work on the containment vessel and its surrounding structural module for the first AP1000 reactor at Poland’s Lubiatowo-Kopalino nuclear plant, according to World Nuclear News. The order, reported November 5, covers the long-lead preparatory work for one of the largest single structures in the reactor building, but not yet the manufacture or delivery of the physical components themselves.

What IHI has actually been asked to do

The scope of the order is narrower than a full manufacturing contract. IHI’s job for now is to prepare technical documentation, select its own sub-suppliers, and begin procuring raw materials for the containment vessel and the so-called CA01 super-module, a composite concrete-and-steel structure that will sit inside the plant’s containment building and house the reactor pressure vessel and steam generators. The CA01 module is a genuinely large piece of engineering: more than 26 meters long, 29 meters wide and 23 meters high, assembled from 47 separate sub-modules. Actual fabrication and shipment of the finished components will follow later, under a separate order that Poland’s state nuclear company, Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe (PEJ), plans to issue once the overall construction contract is signed.

A Japanese supplier for a Polish nuclear first

IHI’s involvement is a reminder of how concentrated the world’s heavy nuclear manufacturing base has become. Japan has kept much of its component-forging capacity — spread across firms such as IHI, Japan Steel Works and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — in business even as most of the country’s own reactor fleet has stayed offline for extended stretches since the Fukushima accident, largely by supplying components for reactor projects abroad. A Japanese contractor building hardware for an American-designed reactor going up on Poland’s Baltic coast illustrates just how globalized AP1000 procurement has become, with Westinghouse drawing on suppliers across multiple continents rather than relying solely on its US or Polish supply base.

Where this sits in the Lubiatowo-Kopalino schedule

The order follows directly from steps PEJ and Westinghouse have already taken. In October, PEJ authorized Westinghouse to begin ordering long-lead items for Unit 1 — the first of three AP1000 reactors planned at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the municipality of Choczewo, Pomerania, which will make up Poland’s first nuclear power plant. Westinghouse has separately signed conditional purchase orders with four Polish suppliers covering other safety-related modules for the same unit. PEJ has also applied for an early-works permit at the site, as TheDailyEnergy.com reported on November 2. Construction of the first unit is scheduled to begin in 2028, with commercial operation targeted for 2036. The plant’s full three-unit capacity, roughly 3,750 MW in total, is now expected by 2038 — three years later than the project’s earlier full-capacity target.

The bigger order still to come

None of this is the final word on who builds the containment vessel. The current IHI order is explicitly a preparatory one; production and delivery of the finished module will be covered by a later contract that PEJ intends to fold into the broader engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) agreement it is negotiating with the Westinghouse-Bechtel consortium. PEJ has said it wants that EPC contract signed by the end of 2026, which would be the next major milestone to watch for a project that, as TheDailyEnergy.com reported in October, only began its formal long-lead procurement process a few weeks ago.

Sources

World Nuclear News, “IHI to supply components for first Polish AP1000,” November 5, 2026 — for IHI’s role, the CA01 module’s scope and dimensions, and the engineering/procurement-only scope of the order.
TheDailyEnergy.com’s prior reporting on Poland’s AP1000 long-lead procurement and PEJ’s early-works permit application, for project background and timeline.