Westinghouse Fuel Ready for Europe's Russian Reactors

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Westinghouse (Monroeville, Pennsylvania) has announced the completion of a European project to create nuclear fuel for use in 14 older Russian-designed VVER reactors.

The company, alongside its eight European consortium partners, said the European Union (EU)-funded project, which is targeted at diversifying the nuclear fuel supply to VVER-440 reactors in Europe, is ready to be implemented. The European Supply of Safe Nuclear Fuel (ESSANUF) project is one in a growing number of EU energy projects designed to reduce the reliance of European nations on Russian power and gas imports. To date, the only fuel for these reactors is produced by TVEL, the fuel manufacturing subsidiary of Russia's state-owned nuclear power major, Rosatom Corporation (Moscow, Russia). The process is similar to what was done by Westinghouse and ENUSA for the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant in Finland in 2001-2007.

The consortium has developed a conceptual fuel design and determined how the manufacturing and supply chain can be re-established to build and ship VVER-440 fuel assemblies. The process, which began in 2015, would mean that certain European countries including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia would not have to rely solely on Russia for fuel. The reactors supply over half of the electricity in some of those countries. For additional information, see July 7, 2015, article - Europe Seeks Alternative Nuclear Fuel Supplies from Westinghouse.

"This project has prepared us very well for manufacturing and delivery of VVER-440 fuel to European utilities, and thereby created a viable alternative to today´s single source of fuel supply," said Aziz Dag, Westinghouse vice president and managing director, Northern Europe. "Many of the countries in Eastern Europe rely heavily on nuclear energy, and strengthening their energy security is therefore strategically very important."

In 2015, Industrial Info reported that Westinghouse was aiming to expand its nuclear fuel factory in Västerås, Sweden, due to increasing demand for VVER-1000 nuclear reactor fuel in Europe, in particular from Ukraine. The plant manages the complete process, from enriched uranium hexafluoride to finished fuel elements, and has been in operation since 1966. For additional information, see May 9, 2016, article - Westinghouse Expands European Nuclear Fuel Factory.

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