Uranium & Fuel

Russia / First Batch Of Remix Fuel For VVER Reactors Passes Acceptance Tests

By David Dalton
10 November 2021

First Batch Of Remix Fuel For VVER Reactors Passes Acceptance Tests
The Remix fuel was manufactured at the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, south-central Russia. Courtesy Tvel.
The first batch of uranium-plutonium Remix nuclear fuel for Russian VVER-1000 reactors has been manufactured and passed acceptance tests at the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, south-central Russia, state nuclear fuel company Tvel said.

Each of the batch of six fuel assemblies consists of Remix fuel rods with uranium-plutonium pellets instead of the traditional enriched uranium dioxide. Each VVER-1000 assembly contains 312 fuel rods.

The fuel pellets were manufactured at the Mining and Chemical Combine, a facility belonging to state nuclear corporation Rosatom in Zheleznogorsk.

The Remix assemblies will undergo a full operation cycle in one of the Russia’s VVER-1000 reactors.

Since 2016, three fuel assemblies, each containing six experimental Remix fuel rods, have been undergoing pilot operation at Unit 3 of the Balakovo nuclear power station. The third 18-month cycle of their irradiation began in 2020 and was completed this year.

Since 2016, Remix fuel assemblies have been in test use at the Balakovo-3 VVER-1000 nuclear power unit, about 900km southeast of Moscow, where a testing programme was completed in 2021.

Tvel said that unlike uranium-plutonium fuel for fast reactors, Remix fuel has a lower plutonium content, up to 1.5%, but its neutron spectrum does not differ from standard enriched uranium fuel, which makes it usable in existing reactors without changes to their design or additional safety measures.

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