Russian nuclear fuel company, TVEL announced that its Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NCCP) has received a contract for the delivery of low-enriched uranium fuel assemblies for the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, the Netherlands.
The contract signifies the entry of Russia's state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, to the foreign research fuel market, TVEL said.
Representatitives of NCCP and NRG, which operates the HFR reactor, first agreed to collaborate in 2006, and the following year signed a memorandum of undestanding, which envisaged qualification of NPPC as a manufacturer for low-enriched uranium-silicide fuel for HFR.
In 2009, NCCP signed a contract for the fabrication and delivery of experimental fuel assemblies (FA) intended for the in-pile test in HFR. In 2011, two experimental FAs were delivered to the customer for a two years' in-pile qualification testing. In September 2013, when both FAs reached the specified burn-up, they were discharged from the reactor on schedule. The test results confirmed comparability of the technical characteristics of NCCP's experimental FAs with the reference fuel.
The successful completion of a fuel qualification programme at HFR means that TVEL will now be able to participate in international bids for the supply of low-enriched plate-type fuel for research reactors of the Western design.
Photo: Petten reactor (Source: NRG)
