OREANDA-NEWS.  The delegation from Nuclear Fuel Production Plant, Private Joint-Stock Company - a Russian-Ukrainian joint venture established by Nuclear Fuel State Concern (Ukraine) and TVEL OJSC for the purpose of the construction of a fabrication plant in Ukraine - made a working visit to Joint-Stock Company "Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant" (Novosibirsk, an enterprise of ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company). The main purpose of the visit to the plant was to get acquainted with the technology of the production of the TVSA fuel assemblies and the progress of manufacture of non-standard equipment for the joint venture.

It is to be recalled that in 2010 TVEL Fuel Company won the tender for the selection of a technology and a partner for the organization of nuclear fuel production in Ukraine. In its turn, JSC NNCP was chosen by the Fuel Company as one of the main participants in the Russian-Ukrainian project. “Our competencies cover the manufacture and supply of equipment, supervision of installation and commissioning works, and staff training. The project consists of several stages”, Yuri Goncharov, Deputy Director General for Development and Innovation, JSC NNCP, says. “At the moment, the first stage is being completed: design documentation has been developed, the production of equipment is at the final stage, in the next few months we will install and adjust this equipment; we plan to transfer it to the customer the next year. I can’t but mention that in this regard JSC NNCP works in cooperation with NZKK-Engineering CJSC. In addition, a staff training program has already been developed; it will consist of two stages, the first one - at NNCP, the second one - in Ukraine”.

In the course of the visit, Ukrainian guests got acquainted with the plant’s main products manufacture, inspected the automated fuel elements production line, the component parts production shop, the powder and pellet production, visited NCCP-ENGINEERING, CJSC, which is engaged in the manufacture of equipment for the production lines installation. They highly appreciated the level of production and process automation.

“I am pleased to note that our Siberian colleagues are getting ready to pass the latest technologies to us. We saw automated lines produced specifically for our factory. The readiness level is very high, about 90 %. I think that in the near future the readiness level will reach 100 %. We are fully satisfied with project implementation rates”,  Vladimir Turbaevskiy, Technical Director of Nuclear Fuel Production Plant PJSC, said. According to him, at the moment preparatory works are in progress in Kirovograd Region, the area has been prepared for the start of construction of the plant. In 2015 it is planned to put the first stage – assembly operation – into operation. And by 2020, the plant shall have commenced its own production of fuel pellets.