Energoatom ready to transfer NPPs to Westinghouse fuel
The state enterprise Energoatom has completed preparations for the complete transfer of power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants to American Westinghouse nuclear fuel.
“Since February 2022, we have accelerated the process of transferring all reactors of domestic nuclear power plants to American fuel. Currently, all the necessary work has been almost completed. This is a unique experience of Ukraine,” Energoatom President Petro Kotin said.
As the company informed, to convert all power units with VVER-1000 and VVER-440 reactors to American nuclear fuel, the company carried out a whole range of engineering work.
In particular, software for monitoring reactor cores was purchased and appropriate training was conducted for company specialists, all justifications for the use of Westinghouse fuel were completed, and the necessary equipment for transport and technological operations was purchased, in particular, a tilter for unloading nuclear fuel and fuel assembly simulators.
“The delivery to one of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants of a simulator necessary to confirm the compatibility of TVS-WR fuel assemblies was the final stage in a long process of preparatory work,” the company noted.
Currently, one of Energoatom's enterprises is also developing research samples of fuel assembly elements and components that are necessary for working with nuclear fuel in the cores of reactors at Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
As reported, in September of this year, the first batch of fuel assemblies produced by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB with the participation of Energoatom specialists was loaded into one of the VVER-440 reactors at Rivne NPP.