Rafael Arutyunyan, first deputy director of Nuclear Safety Institute

– TVEL’s victory in the tender for supply of fuel to Slovak NPP is the result of a whole number of factors

TVEL Corporation has won a tender to supply fuel to the Slovak nuclear power plants for a period till 2015, reports a source from the Slovak nuclear operator.

As a result, TVEL has made a contract for fuel deliveries to the five existing WWER-440 nuclear reactors of Mohovce and Bohunice NPPs and two new reactors of Mohovce NPP as soon as the latter are commissioned.

Our fuel is more efficient and its use is a guarantee of safety. Besides, we take back spent fuel from NPPs and process it. In terms of safety, everybody must have understood that the use of other than Russian fuel requires more efforts and contains more risks. 

The point is that as a rule the fuel produced not in Russia poorly adjusts to reactors of Russian design. They in Slovakia have understood that and have decided that their WWER-440 reactors – despite all the efforts of the Americans from Westinghouse – will continue using Russian fuel.