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Russia’s Rosatom delivers fuel for China Experimental Fast Reactor

Cooperation with Chinese companies bears a strategic importance, according to the official

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. TVEL Fuel Company, a subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has supplied a batch of nuclear fuel for the China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR), the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The fuel has been supplied under the contract between TVEL, China Nuclear Energy Industry Corporation (CNEIC) and China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), the site where the reactor is located," the statement said.

The fuel assemblies were manufactured at the Machine-building Plant in Elektrostal in the Moscow Region.

According to Senior Vice-President for Commerce and International Business at TVEL Oleg Grigoriyev, the cooperation with Chinese partners is of strategic importance for the company.

"We supply fuel to the VVER-1000 powered units of Tianwan NPP, we have localized fabrication of VVER-1000 fuel under license at Yibin plant, which we supply with Russian-made fuel components. At the same time, we are negotiating fuel contracts for the new VVER-1200 power units in China, which will be constructed by Rosatom. The cooperation in the field of fast reactor technologies, including the fuel cycle, bears a strategic importance as it aims at the creation of dual-component nuclear power system in the future," he was quoted as saying.

About CEFR

CEFR serves research purposes. It also operates within a 20 MW power unit supplying electricity to the grid. It is classified by IAEA as the only fast power reactor in the world outside Russia.

Currently the Chinese demonstration fast-neutron reactor CFR-600 as part of the nuclear unit of 600 MW of capacity is under construction in the Fujian Province in the South-East of China. The contract for the supply of nuclear fuel for CFR-600 between TVEL and China’s CNLY (a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation) came into force in early 2019. The fuel for CFR-600 will also be fabricated at the Machine-building Plant.

About TVEL

TVEL Fuel Company includes enterprises for nuclear fuel fabrication, uranium conversion and enrichment, manufacturing of gas centrifuges, as well as research and development and design organizations. It is the only supplier of nuclear fuel to Russian nuclear power plants. The company provides nuclear fuel to 72 power reactors in 14 countries worldwide, research reactors in eight countries, as well as transport reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet.