OREANDA-NEWS. June 22, 2007. The international workshop “VVER-440 Operating Experience and Prospects of Fuel and Fuel Cycles Development” organized by TVEL Corporation was held in Kolontaevo, Moscow Re-gion, reported the press-centre of TVEL.

The workshop was held for the forth time to gather nuclear specialists from three countries – Russia, Hungary and Finland to discuss issues related to fabrication, operation and improvement of fuel for VVER-440 reactors used at Russian nuclear power plants, Hungarian Paks and Fin-nish Loviisa. The workshop was attended by 6 specialists from Hungary, 5 from Finland and 34 from Russia.

Presentations on the most topical issues were given during the workshop to include an experi-ence in design and operation of VVER-440 reactor fuel; improvement of the fuel design fabrica-tion technology at the Mashinostroitelny Zavod; fuel operation results etc. Issues of nuclear fuel cycle developments, main results of fuel performance at Paks nuclear power plant at 108% ther-mal power of the core, irradiation experiments involving irradiation of E110 zirconium alloy which were underway in Hungary were also addressed. Finnish specialists presented on Halden Institute (Norway) experiments to study gaseous fission product releases during fuel assembly operation and simulation of LOCA design basis accidents.

Finnish and Hungarian specialists showed interest in the information on fabrication and opera-tion experience in the second generation fuel for VVER-440 reactors. In terms of characteristics, this fuel allows for more efficient use of uranium charged for 5-year fuel campaign while im-proving plant economics. This is the fuel the MSZ is to fabricate for Loviisa under the won con-tract for nuclear fuel supply to the Finnish nuclear power plant until 2030, as well as to Paks af-ter the joint effort to justify the use of such fuel there has been finalized in frames of the new contract which is in the stage of preparation.

R. Terasvirta, a Finnish utility Fortum representative said about quality of the Russia fuel that there had been no a single fuel rod leak at the Finnish plant over recent eight years.

The reactor uprating at Paks is also implies the use of the second generation fuel for VVER-440 reactors. J. Nemes, a Hungarian expert noted that for Hungary this was the most important pro-ject and quality of the fuel to be supplied met customers requirements and requirements for the fuel cycle.

The MSZ has produced the second generation fuel for VVER-440 since 2002. It passed tests and is successfully used in Russia (Kola nuclear power plant) and abroad (in the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

A thorough discussion and consultations on workshop topics will allow foreign specialists to have more complete and accurate licensing of the improved fuel and fuel cycles by their regula-tory authorities.

At the workshop, the Russian side was represented by specialists from Gidropress design bureau, RRC Kurchatov Institute, NIIAR, VNIINM named after academician A.A. Bochvar, TVEL, MSZ, NCCP, Rosenergoatom and Kola nuclear power plant.