US-based Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF) announced on 1 May that GNF ENUSA Nuclear Fuel (GENUSA), a joint venture between Spain’s ENUSA Industrias Avanzadas (ENUSA) and GNF, has been selected by Swedish utility Vattenfall to provide fuel reloads for the Forsmark nuclear plant.
The new fuel supply contract awarded to GENUSA runs from 2020 to 2023 and includes eight reloads - four each at Forsmark 1&2 - of GNF2, a high-performance fuel assembly designed to deliver increased energy output while decreasing overall fuel cycle costs. The first GE design fuel was delivered to Vattenfall in 1993, since when more than 2500 fuel assemblies have been supplied to reactors in Sweden.
The assemblies, with components designed by GNF, will include the enhanced GNF2 spacer as well as the Defender™ PLUS debris filter that GNF says significantly improves the chance of stopping any debris before it reaches the fuel assembly. The fuel for Forsmark 1&2 will be fabricated by ENUSA in Spain at its Juzbado Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing Plant.
GNF, a supplier of boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel and fuel-related engineering services, is a GE-led joint venture with Hitachi operating primarily through Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (Wilmington, USA) and Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan Co Ltd. in Kurihama, Japan. GENUSA is a Spanish company based in Madrid, jointly owned by GNF and ENUSA to market and sell nuclear fuel and related services to European BWR plants.
Fuel deal for Framatome
Vattenfall has also contracted France's Framatome to supply ten reloads of fuel assemblies manufactured at its facility in Lingen, Germany between 2021 and 2024 for Forsmark 3 and Ringhals 3&4. The contracts include additional options for two reloads for each reactor after 2024. The fuel reload of the Forsmark plant includes the established ATRIUM 10 XM boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel design as well as access to the new ATRIUM 11 fuel design, which is the leading BWR fuel design technology commercialised in recent years by Framatome.
For Ringhals, the company will provide its GAIA pressurised water reactor (PWR) fuel. Framatome says both ATRIUM 11 and GAIA, offer high economic performance, increased safety margins, and greater flexibility with an established track record in various reactor designs.
Forsmark 3, with an installed net capacity of 1167MWe, was connected to grid in 1985. Ringhals 3 and 4, with an installed net capacity of 1064MWe and 1130MWe respectively, were connected to the grid 1980 and 1982.
