15 Jul (NucNet): Ukraine’s state nuclear corporation Energoatom has signed a new memorandum on “joint actions” to achieve a zero failure rate of nuclear fuel, with Russia’s nuclear fuel company TVEL also signing up to the agreement.
The project participants are Energoatom, TVEL, the Kozloduy nuclear power station in Bulgaria, and Czech utility CEZ, which operates the Ducovany and Temelín nuclear stations.
Energoatom president Yuriy Nedashkovsky praised Russia’s decision to sign the memorandum, noting the “constant readiness” of the Ukrainian side for cooperation to improve the efficiency of the country’s nuclear power stations.
Energoatom said the “zero failure” international project is aimed at analysing the processes of designing, manufacturing and operating nuclear fuel, and for finding measures to “identify and remove reasons for failure of nuclear fuel for VVER-1000 reactors”.
TVEL is a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom. TVEL says on its website that it is responsible for the supply of fuel to 76 reactors in 14 countries, including Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and Slovakia. The company has about 17 percent of the nuclear fuel market.
In response to recent Ukrainian media reports about nuclear fuel, TVEL issued a statement saying it works in partnership with Energoatom providing Ukrainian nuclear stations with “high-quality fuel”.
“TVEL has never failed to make timely fuel deliveries, and has always performed its contractual obligations in full. Our Ukrainian partner has made no official claims against the quality of the Russian nuclear fuel,” the statement said.
