Serbia to return used fuel to Russia

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Russia has agreed to receive used highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel from the research reactor at the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Science, near Belgrade, Serbia.

 

Serbia's shut down research reactor (Image: Vinca Institute)

An inter-governmental agreement has been signed by Sergey Kiriyenko, head of Russia's Rosatom, and Božidar Đelić, Serbia's deputy prime minister.

 

Rosatom said that the agreement, which is valid for ten years but could be extended, "provides a legal framework for the importation of used nuclear fuel from Vinca to Russia for its temporary storage and processing."

 

The agreement reaffirms the commitment of both parties to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime and is Russia's confirmation of the agreements reached by former Presidents Putin and Bush in Bratislava in 2005. Under those agreements, Russia and the USA would work together to combat nuclear terrorism and to ensure the return of unused and used HEU fuel from research reactors of Russian and US design in order to reduce potential threats of proliferation of HEU.

 

The return of the fuel under this agreement will be conducted under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the framework of the Russia-US agreement for the retrieval of Russian-produced research reactor fuel.

 

Russia and Serbia have already developed the technologies and equipment needed for preparing the used HEU fuel for transportation. They have also conducted a safety assessment for the project. The first of three deliveries of equipment to Vinca took place in May. The installation and testing of the equipment and the training of workers is to take place between July and September. The repacking of the fuel will begin shortly afterwards.

 

The 6.5 MW Vinca heavy-water moderated research reactor began operating in 1960 and originally operated with Russian-supplied low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel until 1976, when HEU fuel elements were bought from Russia. After some period of operation with the both types of the fuel elements, the reactor switched completely to operation with solely HEU fuel in 1980. The reactor was shut down in 1984 and is to be dismantled.

 

The used fuel from the reactor is stored in a water pool built inside the reactor building. The pool was only designed as a temporary storage facility, but so far the fuel has remained there. As well as some 2.5 tonnes of used fuel (both LEU and HEU) from the reactor, over 1200 sealed radioactive sources are also stored at the Vinca Institute.

 

In 2002, almost 50 kg of unused HEU fuel was removed from Vinca and transported to Russia in a joint operation by Serbia, the USA, the IAEA and other partners.

 

The project to remove the used fuel will be carried out under the Russian-US government agreement on cooperation in removing Russian-made nuclear fuel from research reactors to Russia. The primary goal of the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) program is to eliminate HEU stockpiles and persuade eligible countries to convert their research reactors from HEU to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel upon availability, qualification, and licensing of suitable LEU fuel. Under the RRRFR program, Russia has agreed to take back used and fresh nuclear fuel from research reactors so long as the reactor operators agree to convert the reactors to operate on LEU or shut down. So far, 32 countries have cooperated in the shutdown of a total of 62 HEU-fuelled research reactors.

 

Seventeen countries have Soviet-supplied research reactors, and there are 25 such reactors outside Russia, 15 of them still operational.