Just like other sources of energy for electricity, nuclear power stations need fuel. The supply chain for uranium fuel assemblies is long and complex. There are not a lot of companies/countries that can supply nuclear fuel. There are a lot of old reactors in Eastern Europe that were build by the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, the support of these reactors and their fuel continued to be supplied by Russia. Russia is aggressively marketing Russian power reactors around the world and intends to supply fuel for those that are purchased by other countries. In addition to mining uranium and creating fuel assemblies, Russia is also embarking on a program of building breeder reactors to create more nuclear fuel. Many countries are wary of allowing Russia to monopolize the supply of nuclear fuel for their power reactors. Concerned with the possible interruption of nuclear fuel for their reactors, other countries are seeking alternative suppliers for nuclear fuel for their Russian reactors. The operators of Soviet or Russian reactors in the Eastern European countries that joined the E.U. after the fall of the U.S.S.R. do not want to have to rely solely on Russia's Rosatom company for their nuclear fuel in the future.
Westinghouse and eight European consortium partners have just announced that the European Union has supplied over two million dollars to "to establish the security of supply of nuclear fuel for Russian-designed reactors in the EU." The funding for the new project comes from the Euratom Research and Training Program, part of the E.U.'s research and innovation program. The new project is called the European Supply of Safe Nuclear Fuel project.
There are five E.U. members including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia which currently operate Russian reactors. There are four VVER-1000 reactors and 14 VVER-440 type Russian reactors in these five countries which supply over fifty percent of their electricity. These countries are currently one hundred percent dependent on Russia for nuclear fuel.
Westinghouse will coordinated the project from its facilities in Sweden and the U.K. Eight nuclear institutions in members of the E.U. will be partnered with Westinghouse. Areas of expertise represented by the institutions include the manufacture of VVER-440 fuel assemblies, fault analysis, safety analysis and licensing. Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Toshiba of Japan is the largest supplier of nuclear fuel in Europe and the only company outside of Russia that supplies fuel for VVER design power reactors. Westinghouse recently contracted with Ukraine to supply fuel for Ukrainian VVER-1000 reactors.
The European Commission says that the primary scientific purpose of the new project is to increase knowledge about "the behavior of the VVER-440 fuel during operation." The Community Research and Development Information Service (Cordis) of the E.C. says that "State-of-the-art methods will be verified against an extensive database, including operating experience from several VVER-440 reactors as well as a number of other reactor designs and a wide range of operating conditions. The ability to accurately predict the fuel behavior will be improved and thereby also the safety margins. New knowledge as well as identification of needs of technology development and improvements will be created in the fields of technologies for mechanical design, thermo-mechanical fuel rod design, and safety analysis for VVER fuel. In addition to the technological advances, the project will identify the variation in licensing requirements between the authorities in the different countries. Through such identification, it will become clear that standardization would be beneficial and will foster a dialogue between the authorities/regulatory bodies." The results of the project will be disseminated to institutions involved with the study and operation of VVER type reactors.
