Russia’s Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NPCC), part of state nuclear corporation Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL, has started production of new generation nuclear fuel TVS-2M for unit 3 under construction at China’s Tianwan NPP. TVS-2M nuclear fuel has a higher burn-up and allows longer operation between refuelling outages. In October 2013 TVEL signed a contract in Beijing with Chinese companies for the supply of nuclear fuel and components for Tianwan units 3 and 4 worth than a $1bn. TVS-2M fuel will be used at these units from the outset.
Tianwan NPP units1-4 use Russian design AES-91 VVER-1000 reactors. Units 1 and 2 have been operating at the site since 2007. Units 3 and 4 are under construction and their commissioning is planned for 2018. Recently SNIIP (part of the holding Atomenergomash) supplied equipment for the automated radiation monitoring system (ARMS) to unit 3. This included servers for collection and transfer of information and computer-aided workstations (CAW) with software developed by SNIIP. ARMS is designed for receiving and processing the information about parameters which describe a radiation situation in the NPP and the environment in all operational modes, including design basis and beyond design basis accidents and conditions after the unit has been closed down.
