Kazakh-Chinese joint venture to make nuclear fuel

31 May 2017


Kazakhstan will start producing nuclear fuel for Chinese NPPs in 2019 through the Ulba-FA joint venture (JV) set up between Kazakh state nuclear company Kazatomprom and China General Nuclear (CGN) by the two countries, a senior official at Kazakhstan’s Ulba Metallurgical Plant told Reuters. Kazakhstan has no enrichment facilities and mostly exports uranium in the form of uranium oxide or pellets, both of which require further processing before being used by power plants. However, the new JV aims to produce ready-to-use fuel assemblies. It will procure enriched uranium either in China or in Russia, the Ulba plant’s head of sales Alexander Khodanov said 26 May. The first stage of the project will produce about 200 tonnes of nuclear fuel a year using technologies and equipment supplied by France’s Areva. 



Privacy Policy
We have updated our privacy policy. In the latest update it explains what cookies are and how we use them on our site. To learn more about cookies and their benefits, please view our privacy policy. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies. By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.