The first Russian-made nuclear fuel assemblies with experimental accident-tolerant fuel rods for commercial reactors have been manufactured and passed acceptance inspection at Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, a fabrication facility of Rosatom’s fuel manufacturer subsidiary TVEL. The ATF rods are to be loaded into one of the VVER-1000 units at the Rostov nuclear power plant in western Russia in the first quarter of 2020, TVEL said yesterday.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a 15-year operating licence extension for unit 2 of the Kola nuclear power plant to 2034. Kola NPP is located 200 km south of Murmansk, on the shore of Lake Imandra. It produces about 60% of the electricity of the Murmansk region.

The floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov was today connected to the grid, generating electricity for the first time in the remote Chaun-Bilibino network in Pevek, in Russia’s Far East. The achievement followed Russian regulator Rostekhnadzor's provision of an operating licence, as well as permission to connect to the northern electricity grid maintained by Chukotenergo JSC. Connecting the plant to Pevek's heat networks will be completed next year.

Russian regulator Rostechnadzor has issued a 15-year operating licence extension for unit 3 of the Smolensk nuclear power plant, the last of three RBMK-1000 reactors at the site in western Russia. The move means the whole plant has permission to operate for a total of 45 years.

France's Orano will supply a second depleted uranium hexafluoride defluorination plant to TVEL's JSC Electrochemical Plant in Zelenogorsk in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Region under a EUR40 million (USD44 million) contract awarded by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. The first facility has been in operation at the site for ten years.

A new-generation core catcher has been installed at Kudankulam unit 3 which is currently under construction in India, Russia's AtomStroyExport has announced.

TVEL has announced the suspension of its work to upgrade the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant because Iran fed uranium hexafluoride into two gas centrifuge cascades located in the same room as the cascades meant to be reengineered for stable medical isotope production.

Siberian Chemical Combine has awarded a RUB26.3 billion (USD412 million) contract to Titan-2 for the construction and installation works for the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor facility at its site in Seversk, Russia. SCC is a subsidiary of TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturing subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Unit 1 of Russia's Leningrad II nuclear power plant has been integrated into the heat supply system of the city of Sosnovy Bor, operator Rosenergoatom has announced. The VVER-1200 reactor will replace electricity and heating capacity lost with the closure last December of the first of four RBMK-1000 units at the nearby Leningrad plant.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced the retrieval of abandoned, highly radioactive used nuclear fuel assemblies from the bottom of Building 5 at Andreeva Bay in north-western Russian. Following the successful operation, radiation levels at the facility have fallen by over 40%, enabling further decommissioning work and removing "one of the most significant radiological risks to the Barent Sea region", the London-headquartered bank said.

ARMZ, the uranium mining division of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has announced the start of exploration work at the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region of Russia. ARMZ subsidiary JSC Dalur received a permit for the project in June 2017, and ARMZ said yesterday that Rusburmash, its geological exploration and drilling subsidiary, plans to drill 238 wells and carry out geophysical surveys at the site.

TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has signed a contract for nuclear fuel supply to the planned units 3 and 4 of the Xudabao nuclear power plant in China's Liaoning province.