Rosatom entered the US market with fuel for Western-style reactors
The main news of recent weeks for the Rosatom fuel division is the entry into the American market with our project of fuel assemblies for western-type nuclear power plants TVS-KVADRAT.
Rosatom has long been providing uranium enrichment services to the world, but nuclear fuel for a reactor is not only uranium itself, it is a complex engineering structure that has to work stably for more than a year inside a nuclear reactor at a huge temperature, pressure and high radiation field. It consists of a bundle of fuel rods several meters long inside which are uranium pellets. All this design is called a fuel assembly - FA. In the core of the most common Russian VVER-1000 reactor, there are 163 such fuel assemblies.
So, in each type of reactor there are fuel assemblies of their own design. The main visible difference between Russian fuel assemblies and Western-style fuel assemblies is form. We have them six-sided in cross section, and in the West - square. Hence the name of the new product. In the photo at the beginning of the post both our TVS are shown - the square on the left and the hexagon on the right.
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Most often, the manufacturer of the reactor and produces fuel for it, others make it very difficult. Therefore, Rosatom still supplies fuel to all nuclear power plants in 14 countries built according to Soviet design - these are 78 power units out of 450 operating around the world. And when a contract is concluded for the construction of a new station, he is most often accompanied by a contract for the supply of fuel for many years to come, if not for the entire period of its operation at once.
However, nobody canceled the advantages of competition, and having a situation in which the NPP owner buys fuel from one supplier in a market with several participants is not the best option for him. Well, it is always interesting for a supplier to discover a huge market for "alien" reactors. Therefore, the process has begun.
Already in 2014, Rosatom began the first pilot deliveries of several TVS-KVADRAT to the Swedish Ringhals-3 NPP . Negotiations were conducted with China. Now a consortium of Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (a subsidiary of GE-Hitachi) to promote TVS-SQUARE on the American market, the largest in the world, with about 100 power units, has been created. The first contract for pilot fuel supply was signed with one of the operators in the USA. But before the fuel passes all the checks, it will take several years.
The US-Japanese giant Westinghouse has advanced much further into the development of the Soviet design fuel market. After unsuccessful attempts in the Czech Republic, fuel supplies to nuclear power plants in Ukraine have been going on for several years, where they currently have two units loaded. Literally last week there was news about the next loading of fuel to the power unit of Zaporizhzhya NPP - the largest in Europe. In the coming years, Ukraine can load Westinghouse fuel into 6 out of 15 power units.
Despite the many political and psychological problems that are associated with the exit of suppliers to "foreign" territory, we must understand that this process is mutual and, most importantly, inevitable.
The funny thing. Rosatom enters the US market as part of a consortium with GE Hitachi, a US-Japan subsidiary. And already established on the Ukrainian market, the Westinghouse belongs to the Japanese Toshiba. Here are the Japanese people, they are winding up their nuclear energy, but the rest of the world is slowly crushing to themselves.
Rosatom has long been providing uranium enrichment services to the world, but nuclear fuel for a reactor is not only uranium itself, it is a complex engineering structure that has to work stably for more than a year inside a nuclear reactor at a huge temperature, pressure and high radiation field. It consists of a bundle of fuel rods several meters long inside which are uranium pellets. All this design is called a fuel assembly - FA. In the core of the most common Russian VVER-1000 reactor, there are 163 such fuel assemblies.
So, in each type of reactor there are fuel assemblies of their own design. The main visible difference between Russian fuel assemblies and Western-style fuel assemblies is form. We have them six-sided in cross section, and in the West - square. Hence the name of the new product. In the photo at the beginning of the post both our TVS are shown - the square on the left and the hexagon on the right.
')
Most often, the manufacturer of the reactor and produces fuel for it, others make it very difficult. Therefore, Rosatom still supplies fuel to all nuclear power plants in 14 countries built according to Soviet design - these are 78 power units out of 450 operating around the world. And when a contract is concluded for the construction of a new station, he is most often accompanied by a contract for the supply of fuel for many years to come, if not for the entire period of its operation at once.
However, nobody canceled the advantages of competition, and having a situation in which the NPP owner buys fuel from one supplier in a market with several participants is not the best option for him. Well, it is always interesting for a supplier to discover a huge market for "alien" reactors. Therefore, the process has begun.
Already in 2014, Rosatom began the first pilot deliveries of several TVS-KVADRAT to the Swedish Ringhals-3 NPP . Negotiations were conducted with China. Now a consortium of Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (a subsidiary of GE-Hitachi) to promote TVS-SQUARE on the American market, the largest in the world, with about 100 power units, has been created. The first contract for pilot fuel supply was signed with one of the operators in the USA. But before the fuel passes all the checks, it will take several years.
The US-Japanese giant Westinghouse has advanced much further into the development of the Soviet design fuel market. After unsuccessful attempts in the Czech Republic, fuel supplies to nuclear power plants in Ukraine have been going on for several years, where they currently have two units loaded. Literally last week there was news about the next loading of fuel to the power unit of Zaporizhzhya NPP - the largest in Europe. In the coming years, Ukraine can load Westinghouse fuel into 6 out of 15 power units.
Despite the many political and psychological problems that are associated with the exit of suppliers to "foreign" territory, we must understand that this process is mutual and, most importantly, inevitable.
The funny thing. Rosatom enters the US market as part of a consortium with GE Hitachi, a US-Japan subsidiary. And already established on the Ukrainian market, the Westinghouse belongs to the Japanese Toshiba. Here are the Japanese people, they are winding up their nuclear energy, but the rest of the world is slowly crushing to themselves.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/396665/
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