OREANDA-NEWS. On June 05, 2007 Olenin visited the fresh fuel storage cell of the reactor hall, the modernized control board of the 3rd unit and the new spent nuclear fuel storage facilitym, reported the press-centre of TVEL. 

TVEL has cooperated with Dukovany NPP since the mid 1990s, when the sides concluded their first fuel supply contract. The companies have also cooperated on improving the quality of the supplied fuel with view to raise the efficiency of the plant.

Olenin said that the Czech side is a demanding client and is highly competent in nuclear physics. “A small change by our Czech colleagues in one of our baseline figures, particularly, the one concerning optimized enrichment process, has allowed us to add half a day to the total number of effective days, in other words, 5,300 MWh. It was quite a difficult technological task.” The director of Dukovany NPP Zdenek Linhart said that TVEL supplies the plant with high-quality fuel. “We keep improving the quality of the fuel and this allows us to raise our capacity with no threat to safety.”

Today, Dukovany is one of the best NPPs in the world. It works on Russian fuel. In 2008 the plant is going to switch from three- to five-year fuel cycle. This will save it billions of coronas. Under the present contract, which is valid till 2013, TVEL should supply the plant with 216 tons of fuel or 300-400 fuel assemblies a year.

After visiting the spent nuclear fuel storage facility, Olenin said that, just like the Czech Republic, Russia regards spent nuclear fuel as a valuable source of energy. The only difference is that Russia has already started processing spent fuel for further use.

In 2006 TVEL won an international tender for supplying fuel to Temelin, the other Czech NPP, starting from 2010. In June 2007 CEZ (Czech Power Company) and TVEL signed an additional contract for long-term supply of Russian fuel to the plant’s WWER-1000 reactor starting from 2009 and, consequently, for replacement of the fuel produced by Westinghouse.

Under the contract TVEL will supply Temelin with almost 400 tons of improved TBCA+ fuel.