Casting process design and practice for coolant pump impeller in AP1000 nuclear power station

The coolant pump impeller casting is the only rotating component in the nuclear island of an AP1000 nuclear power station, and is required to have a 60-year service time, which requires advanced materials and processing technologies to guarantee. In this paper, the casting process was studied, designed and modifed by means of numerical simulation. The gating system was distributed symmetrically and the runner diameter was a little bigger for avoiding sand wash and turbulence; the feeding system focused on the solution of blades feeding, as some parts of which should reach Severity Level 1 radioactive testing standard. Therefore, upper and lower plates cooperating with chillers acted as feeding method besides additional 2–3 times thickness; in addition, lowering sand core strength, decreasing pouring temperature and increasing dimension allowance would be adopted to avoid crack defects. Finally, the pilot impeller was cast. The results show that the casting process design is reasonable, as the liquid rises very smoothly when pouring, and no volume defects are found by means of 100% radioactive testing. Based on this casting process, 16 coolant pump impellers have been successfully produced and delivered to customers.