Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj said it plans to start loading fuel into the core of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR in the autumn, once an operating licence has been granted. However, the company said it is awaiting confirmation from the Areva-Siemens consortium that start-up of the unit is still scheduled for May 2019.
The first test simulating an accident situation in a pressurised water reactor has been successfully completed at the CABRI research reactor in Cadarache, southern France. The test was part of an international research programme aimed at improving knowledge of nuclear fuel behaviour during an accident involving a sudden increase of power.
China General Nuclear has begun loading fuel into the core of unit 1 of the Taishan nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province following the issuance of a permit from the regulator. The unit is later this year scheduled to become the first EPR reactor to enter operation.
TVEL, Rosatom's nuclear fuel manufacturing subsidiary, has signed an agreement with Fortum Power and Heat Oy to supply modified nuclear fuel assemblies to be used at the Loviisa 1 and 2 VVER 440s in Finland. Rosatom said yesterday the agreement is in addition to TVEL's existing fuel supply contract with the Finnish utility.
China has completed a "large-scale demonstration project for a new generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges", China National Nuclear Corporation announced yesterday. The new centrifuges have now been put into production at the Hanzhun fuel facility in Shaanxi province.
Electricity prices in Ukraine are too low to enable the country's nuclear power plant operator to cover the cost of its fuel, its president and CEO said last week. In addition, the regulator's new methodology for calculating the cost of nuclear fuel purchases is restricted to new contracts.
Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists plan to form a joint venture to license a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for used nuclear fuel at the WCS site in Andrews County, Texas. The joint venture will request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission resume its review of the CISF licence application WCS originally submitted two years ago.
Terrestrial Energy of Canada has signed a contract for technical services with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany. Under the contract, JRC will perform confirmatory studies of the fuel and primary coolant salt mixture for Terrestrial's Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR).
Unit 1 of the Edwin I Hatch nuclear power plant in the US state of Georgia has begun operating with test accident-tolerant fuel assemblies. The fuel, loaded during a recent outage, is the first of its kind to be installed in a commercial nuclear reactor.
Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania has announced the removal of the last used fuel assembly from the reactor of unit 2. Some of the used fuel was removed from the reactor after its final closure in 2009, but the remainder was left pending the launch of an Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility.