The permit was given by the National Nuclear Safety Administration of China after a detailed review of the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and three rounds of negotiations between representatives of the nuclear power plant and the Chinese regulator. “The reactor startup phase will begin within the shortest time possible once the first fuel assembly is loaded into the reactor,” said Alexei Bannik, ASE Project Manager in China. “We will load a total of 163 fuel assemblies. As soon as the loading process and subsequent tests are completed, Unit 3 will go critical. The next step after the criticality is connection to the Chinese power grid.” “The project design for Tianwan Unit 3 was completed in mid-2016. Russian experts monitor the construction process and supervise each step in the run-up to the commissioning of Unit 3. We plan to bring the power unit online by late 2017 and continue with the commissioning of Unit 4,” said Valery Kedrov, Deputy Director at AtomProekt.