OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2012. Mashinostroitelny Zavod (MSZ) in Elektrostal has completed the fuel assembly bundling section under a contract with AREVA NP, FC TVEL said June 14. The completion was announced at an outdoor meeting at MSZ chaired by Fuel Company TVEL president Yuri Olenin. The line has been arranged by a merger of the fuel rod fabrication section and fuel assembly bundling section “along with the resulted section qualification and fabrication of three fuel reloads.” The company also said that MSZ in parallel increased output of fuel pellets for CANDU reactors.

The joint work of MSZ and AREVA NP (former Siemens/KWU) started in 1994 when fabrication processes of fuel assemblies of AREVA NP’s design were qualified; the fuel was intended for PWR reactors and used recycled uranium. Later the facility designed and commissioned an automated line to fabricate fuel assemblies to a western design. Initially, the fuel was supplied to Germany, then to Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Today, AREVA NP and MSZ have contracts for fabrication of nuclear fuel for several West European nuclear power plants valid until 2020.