Specialists from Rosatom's TVEL have told an international nuclear fuel conference that the Russian-designed TVS-K fuel for Western-design pressurised water reactors (PWRs) had demonstrated "excellent behaviour under commercial operating conditions".
TVEL started PWR fuel fabrication at Novosibirsk in 2021 and says its modified versions of its TVS-K fuel is "the only nuclear fuel on the world market that is completely independent of the developers of the original PWR reactor technology".
Ilya Ushmarov, project manager of TVS-K at TVEL, said: "TVS-K fuel provides nuclear power plant operators with unique advantages: increased performance of power units based on proven solutions, increased operational safety, and all this together with increased stability of fuel supply chains."
TVEL, which is Rosatom's fuel division, said that at the four-day Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting, which incorporates the TopFuel conference, in Xi'an, China, it presented a strategy for development of nuclear fuel for Russian-designed VVER reactors and for small modular reactors and "detailed reports on the high performance of TVS-K fuel based on full cycle experience in the European PWR-900 reactor and post-irradiation studies at an independent research centre".
It added: "The excellent behaviour of the fuel under commercial operating conditions was demonstrated, as well as the possibilities for introducing TVS-K with an increased level of uranium enrichment and an integrated burnable absorber, with an increase in the fuel cycle of power units due to this, which will make the operation of nuclear power plants more cost-effective."
