23 Feb (NucNet): The first shipment of Westinghouse-made nuclear fuel for Russian-designed pressurised water reactors (VVERs) has been delivered to Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power station in the southeast of the country, Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom said.
The assemblies were manufactured at a Westinghouse facility in Sweden, the statement said.
Energoatom said it plans to load the new fuel into the 1,000-MW Zaporozhe-5 reactor during a scheduled outage in May 2016.
The company also said it expects to use the new fuel for Units 1, 3, and 4 if the results from Unit 5 allow for it.
Westinghouse confirmed today that in 2016 it is delivering five reloads to nuclear power plants in Ukraine, a contract for which was signed in 2014.
The South Ukraine-2 and South Ukraine-3 nuclear units already operate using Westinghouse fuel under a 2008 fuel supply agreement, which was extended to 2020 in April 2014.
Zaporozhye’s six operational VVER-1000 units currently use fuel supplied by Russia’s TVEL.
In June 2015, Westinghouse received a €2m ($2.2m) grant from a European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) funding programme for a Euratom project to establish security of supply of nuclear fuel for Russian-designed reactors in the EU.
