OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2007. Seminar “The Experience of the Use and the Prospects for the Development of Fuel and Fuel Cycles for WWER-440” was conducted by TVEL Corporation in Kolontayevo (Moscow region) on June 19–20

Specialists from Russia, Hungary and Finland met for the fourth time to discuss the problems of production, use and development of WWER-440 fuel at Russian NPPs, Hungarian Paks NPP and Finnish Loviisa NPP. 6 Hungarian, 5 Finnish and 34 Russian specialists took part in the seminar.

They made reports on the production and use of fuel for WWER-440; on the improvement of the relevant technologies at Elemash; on the development of the relevant fuel cycles; on the use of the fuel at Paks NPP under 108% thermal capacity of the active zone; on the zirconium alloy irradiation experiments carried out in Hungary; on the Norwegian Halden Institute’s fission gas emission studies; on LOCA-type accident modeling, etc..

The Finnish and Hungarian specialists showed high interest in the production and use of second-general WWER-440 fuel. This fuel is more effective and allows consumer NPPs to improve their performance. This is exactly the fuel Elemash is going to make for Loviisa NPP (Finland) (in the framework of TVEL’s contract for the supply of fuel to that plant till 2030) and for Paks NPP (Hungary) (as soon as the sides study its feasibility under their new contract).

Representative of Finnish Fortum company R.Terasvirta said that Russian fuel is of high quality: no single fuel assembly has failed in Finland in the last eight years.

Paks NPP is also considering the possibility of using WWER-440 fuel. The Hungarian experts said that this is the most important project for them at the moment. “We are satisfied with the quality of this fuel,” they said.

The second generation of the WWER-440 fuel has been produced at Elemash since 2002. Last year it was successfully tested at Kola NPP (Russia) and Czech and Slovakian NPPs.

Such discussions help foreign specialists to more effectively license new types of fuel and fuel cycles in their supervisory authorities.

Representatives of Hydropress, Kurchatov Institute, Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors, All-Russian Research Institute of Non-Organic Materials, TVEL, Elemash, Novosibirsk Plant of Chemical Concentrates, Rosenergoatom and Kola NPP took part in the seminar.