OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2010. TVEL, a Rosatom fuel company, signed a package of contractual documents with Chinese corporations JNPC (Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation) and China Nuclear Energy Industry Corporation (CNEIC) for complex supply of TVS-2M nuclear fuel for unit #1 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station (TNPS) in the amount for six reloads.

Pursuant to the contractual documents TVEL will also sell TVS-2M fuel manufacturing technology to be used to produce the fuel in China at Yibin Fuel Factory, starting from the 7th load at TNPS.

In addition, the parties signed a contract for supply of Russian zirconium components needed for China-based manufacture of UTVS fuel for the 6th reload of TNPS units 1 and 2 and TVS-2M fuel for the 7th reload of TNPS unit 2.

The documents were signed by TVEL Fuel Company President Yuri Olenin, JNPC General Director Jiang Ghoyuan and CNEIC General Director Huang Mingang. The total value of the contracts makes approximately USD 500 million.

For TVEL Fuel Company these contracts have become an opportunity to continue the strategic cooperation launched in 1997, when a contract for supply of fuel for TNPS units 1 and 2 was signed, by offering the Chinese party more modern and more efficient TVS-2M fuel. Under the contract of 1997 TVEL manufactured and supplied UTVS-type fuel in the amount needed for initial loads and three reloads of every unit of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station. The supply of fuel for the third reload of TNPS unit 2 was completed in March 2010. According to the contract of 1997, further manufacture and supply of UTVS fuel for TNPS will be performed by Yibin Fuel Factory that passed final qualification by TVEL specialists early in 2010.

In April 2009 TVEL OJSC and JNPC agreed to transfer TNPS units 1 and 2 to operating with long 18-month fuel cycles, based on the use of a new fuel construction TVS-2M. So far, TVEL and JNPC have agreed on the scope and deadlines of the transfer of technical documentation required to prepare fuel performance justification and to have the fuel licensed while TNPS units 1 and 2 are transferred to operating with long nuclear cycles. Late in April 2010 the companies signed contracts for supply of the first 6 pilot TVS-2M’s, with shipment scheduled to be effected early in November 2010.

Pursuant to the contracts signed this year on November 2, supplies of Russian TVS-2M fuel for TNPS unit 1 shall start in 2014. Fuel for six reloads of TNPS unit 1 will be produced by JSC Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, a Fuel Company’s subsidiary.

For TNPS unit 2 TVS-2M fuel will be produced in China at Yibin Fuel Factory (similarly to UTVS fuel), using Russian technology and Russian zirconium components to be supplied by 2014.

The parties have agreed that the general contract for construction of the third and the fourth TNPS unit, to be signed on November 2010, will be followed by negotiations regarding supply of fuel for them.