Nikolay Kuzelyov, Director General of VNIIATFA

– Russian nuclear fuel has obvious advantages over American fuel assemblies for Slovak NPPs

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.

I am glad that we have won the tender to supply nuclear fuel to the Slovak nuclear power plants and I would like to congratulate TVEL. I always follow TVEL’s work with high attention as our institute makes instruments for their nuclear fuel assemblies. We are also interested in supplying the Slovak NPPs with boron control systems designed by our institute.

I was sure that TVEL would win because they were so purposeful and efficient that they could not but win. TVEL’s quality management system meets the highest international standards.

The Russian nuclear fuel has obvious advantages over the American fuel assemblies for the Slovak NPPs. We all remember that the Czech Republic and Finland, who also operate WWER-type reactors, tried to switch to the fuel produced by Westinghouse but it was an unsuccessful trial. Westinghouse has lost all the last tenders in those countries.

The only question is why Ukraine has made a contract with that American company. The answer is obvious – politics. I was afraid that in Slovakia politics might have also prevailed. But the Slovak side acted wisely as they saw that the Russian fuel was better. They have also proposed that we supply fuel to the new reactors of Mohovce NPP. So, we will do our best to preserve our competitive advantages on that market.