OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2007. Under the tripartite agreement signed in 2007 by TVEL, the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Physics Institute of the Uzbekistani Academy of Sciences, TVEL is to deliver low enriched fuel (LEU) for VVR-SM research reactor this December.

The 21 LEU fuel assemblies will be delivered in frames of the Russian-American RERTR program (Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors) which is aimed at reducing the potential threat of highly enriched nuclear material proliferation.

The low enriched fuel (20% by uranium-235) is to replace highly enriched one which is in the current use. At this, the new fuel will allow to operate the reactor in a safer manner.

The fuel for Tashkent-based research reactor is to be fabricated by one of the TVEL’s enterprises – the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant. The facility is a traditional producer of research reactor fuel.

Also in 2007, a nuclear fuel delivery to the research reactor in the Dalat Nuclear Research Center in Vietnam is planned under the RERTR program. Earlier RERTR deliveries were made in 2005 to research reactors in the Czech Technical University and Nuclear Research Center Tajura in Libya (TREWDRC).