11 Dec (NucNet): The South Ukraine-3 nuclear reactor unit in Ukraine will load new nuclear fuel delivered by the Westinghouse Electric Company early next year, Ukraine’s nuclear power station operator Energoatom said.
Energoatom will load 42 new nuclear fuel assemblies into South Ukraine-3, Westinghouse confirmed to NucNet.
Westinghouse also said South Ukraine-2 and South Ukraine-3 already operate using Westinghouse fuel and the new fuel assemblies were delivered recently as part of a contract for Westinghouse fuel deliveries signed in 2008.
According to Energoatom, South Ukraine-3 was shut down on 8 December 2014 for scheduled maintenance outage which will take 119 days, until the beginning of April 2015.
Maintenance will include general reactor repair, technical inspections of two steam generators and maintenance of the low-pressure turbine amongst others.
The South Ukraine nuclear power station has three commercially operational Russian-built 950-megawatt VVER-1000 reactor units which began commercial operation between 1983 and 1989.
