TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation will supply nuclear fuel for Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant of Bulgaria till 2025. Both the sides signed a deal to this effect in this month, according to Rosatom press release.
This year on August 6, 2019 under an agreement with Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), TVEL to supply nuclear fuel for the life time of under construction Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh.
Kozloduy NPP operates two VVER-1000 power units, both fueled with Russian-made nuclear fuel assemblies manufactured by Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (a fabrication facility of TVEL Fuel Company in Novosibirsk, West Siberia).
Since late 2016, one of the units is being supplied with new generation TVSA-12 fuel. The new highly efficient fuel enabled the Bulgarian engineers to start pilot operations of the power unit at an increased thermal capacity of 104 per cent already in 2017. Since April, 2018, the power unit has been officially operating at increased capacity, which gives a positive impact on the plant’s economic efficiency and performance.
Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL said, “TVEL provides Kozloduy with a full range of services, including complete nuclear fuel supplies, engineering services, fuel deliveries to the site of the power plant. TVEL has always provided full reliability of nuclear fuel supplies to its customers. This year, we have started fuel shipments to Bulgaria using a new transportation route, which ensures additional reliability of our supplies.”
The two operational VVER-1000 power units of Kozloudy NPP launched in 1987 and 1991, annually generate more than third of electricity in Bulgaria.
TVEL incorporates enterprises for fabrication of nuclear fuel, conversion and enrichment of uranium, production of gas centrifuges, as well as research and design organizations. It provides nuclear fuel for 76 power reactors in 15 countries worldwide, research reactors in eight countries. Every sixth power reactor in the world operates on fuel manufactured by TVEL.
