Rosatom begins supplying nuclear fuel for China’s CFR-600 reactor. The company continues its development towards Asia.
A first delivery
Rosatom owns the Elemash machine-building plant, a fuel manufacturing company of TVEL Fuel. For example, it has just shipped the first batch of nuclear fuel to China for the CFR-600 fast neutron reactor. In addition, the CFR-600 uranium fuel fabrication facility at the Elemash plant dates to 2021.
Rosatom is fundamentally modernizing the fast reactor fuel fabrication shop. Thus, the company shipped, at the end of 2021, the mock-ups of the control and protection system assemblies of the CFR-600. The Chinese customer is expecting two more shipments of fuel by the end of the year.
A partnership contract
The contract for CFR-600 fuel is in line with the agreement between Russia and China. The agreement provides for the joint construction and operation of the fast demonstration reactor in China. It is part of a broad program of bilateral cooperation in the nuclear industry for the coming decades.
The agreement includes the construction of innovative Russian-designed power generation units. This generation III+ will be equipped with VVER-1200 reactors at two sites in China. The nuclear power plants are built at the Tianwan and Xudabao sites.
