Westinghouse said in a statement that fuel deliveries are expected to begin in 2024 while the contract is anticipated to be valid for seven years.
The contract will replace supplies by Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer Tvel, a subsidiary of state-owned nuclear group Rosatom.
ČEZ said in a separate statement that Dukovany has stored nuclear fuel to cover about three years of operation. The station is obliged to maintain these reserves even after signing the new fuel contract, the statement said.
Daniel Beneš, chief executive officer of ČEZ, said the signing of the new “western supplier” contract for Dukovany means “a further significant strengthening of energy security” for the company and the Czech Republic.
In June 2022, ČEZ announced deals with Westinghouse and France’s Framatome for the supply of VVER-1000 fuel assemblies for the Czech Republic’s two-unit Temelín nuclear power station.
Since 2019 Westinghouse-made lead fuel assemblies have been in operation in the reactor core of Temelín-1. Westinghouse had also been supplying fuel for the plant in the early 2000s.
Dukovany has four Russia-designed VVER-440 units which began commercial operation in the 1980s. Prague is planning the construction of a new large-scale unit at the site that could begin in 2029 and be completed by 2036.
Westinghouse used to supply VVER-440 fuel for Finland’s two-unit Loviisa nuclear power station, but in 2009 ceased production. In 2014 it began examining the option of restarting its VVER-440 production capabilities.
While the company has been manufacturing and supplying VVER-1000 fuel for about a decade, almost exclusively for use in Ukraine’s large PWR units, fuel for smaller VVER-440 PWRs has not been deployed with customers since 2009.
According to earlier reports, the first experimental batch of new VVER-440 fuel assemblies was expected to be loaded into the core of Ukraine’s Rivne-2 plant in 2024.
In Europe, apart from the Czech Republic and Ukraine, three other countries have Russia-designed VVER-440 plants in commercial operation – Finland, Slovakia, and Hungary.
