Contract for production of fuel pellets for British NPP signed

01.06.2007 // Press service of TVEL

A contract for the supply of fuel pellets to a British NPP was signed in late May 2007

The contract was signed by Mashinostoitelny Zavod OJSC (Elemash) and AREVA NP. The pellets will be supplied to AREVA NP’s plant in Lingen (Germany) in late 2007-early 2008, where they will be used for the production of fuel assemblies for British Energy, the leading power generating company of the United Kingdom.

The fuel assemblies will be supplied for Sizewell B, the only British Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). This is the first time Elemash is supplying fuel to a British NPP.

The contract is part of the Elemash-AREVA NP cooperation, which was started in 1994, when Elemash adopted AREVA NP’s technology for PWR fuel assembly production. Later, the plant launched an automated line for producing fuel assemblies of western design. Initially, the fuel was supplied to Germany, later, to Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. A total of 1,000 fuel assemblies of western design have been produced, so far, with no single failure report received from any western NPP. Today, AREVA NP and Elemash have contracts for producing nuclear fuel for a number of Western European NPPs till 2020.

Elemash is one of the biggest multi-business companies of TVEL Corporation. The company supplies almost 100 tons of fuel a year under its contract with AREVA NP. Presently, Elemash supplies fuel to 10 reactors in Western Europe.