There is bipartisan support in the USA for the country to be the world's leading supplier of fuel for advanced reactors, Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said today during the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle forum, which the NEI is co-hosting this week with World Nuclear Association.

A major renovation project has been completed at TRIGA International's fuel fabrication facility in Romans-sur-Isère, southeastern France. The facility is the only supplier of uranium-zirconium hydride fuel for use in TRIGA-type research reactors. The upgrades will ensure the continued operation of 36 such reactors around the world.

The loading of fuel assemblies into the Olkiluoto 3 EPR in Finland began on 27 March, utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has announced. The move follows the receipt of a permit from the country's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority the previous day. The process of loading the fuel assemblies into OL3 is expected to take about one week, TVO said.

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj has been granted a permit by the country's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority to load fuel into the reactor of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR. The unit, construction of which began in 2005, is scheduled to enter commercial operation early next year.

Framatome is to supply PROtect enhanced accident tolerant fuel technology and ATRIUM 11 fuel for the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Monticello, Minnesota under a contract signed with Xcel Energy. This will be the first delivery of prototype EATF rods under the PROtect programme to a boiling water reactor, Framatome says.
 

Lightbridge Corporation has decided to prioritise developing fuel for future small modular reactors rather than fuel for large reactor designs, President and CEO Seth Grae said in a business update ahead of a webcast and conference call to discuss the company's financial results. The company is also contemplating a zirconium-plutonium version of its fuel.

Lightbridge Corporation and Framatome have agreed to dissolve their Enfission joint venture. Launched in January 2018, Enfission was to develop, license and sell nuclear fuel assemblies based on Lightbridge's innovative metallic nuclear fuel technology.

The process of loading 241 fuel assemblies into the core of unit 2 at the Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE has begun, operator Nawah Energy Company has announced. The move follows the issuance last week by the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation of the operating licence for the second of four Korean-designed APR1400 units at the site.

The US Department of Energy has awarded BWXT Nuclear Operations Group two contracts worth a total of USD35 million. The first is for the recovery and conversion of uranium, while the second is for the completion of a new research reactor fuel line at its Lynchburg, Virginia facility.

The loading of 'dummy' fuel assemblies began yesterday at unit 2 of the new nuclear power plant in Ostrovets, Belarus. "This process is a prerequisite and, in a way, a dress rehearsal for the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor," Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.

The Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, in the Ulyanovsk region of Russia, has completed the second cycle of irradiation of the experimental fuel assemblies with VVER and pressurised water reactor fuel rods in the MIR research reactor. This marks the latest milestone in the development of Russian accident tolerant fuel, state nuclear corporation Rosatom announced today.

Elemash Machine-building plant has launched a production site for the fabrication of fuel for China's flagship fast neutron reactor, the CFR-600. A subsidiary of Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer TVEL, Moscow-based Elemash has modernised an entire shop floor for fast reactors, and says 'dummy' fuel bundles for the CFR-600 are already being manufactured for testing.