Framatome To Support Czech Nuclear Fuel Diversification

Framatome (ENS Corporate Member) and Czech utility ČEZ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to Framatome’s own-design VVER-1000 fuel development programme.

We are pleased to take another step in the development of a Framatome own-design VVER-1000 fuel design, with a view to ensuring the safe, reliable and uninterrupted operation of the VVER nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic and beyond

said Lionel Gaiffe, senior executive vice president, Fuel Business Unit at Framatome.

Nineteen VVER reactors are currently in operation in the European Union, including four VVER 1,000 MW reactors in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, and fifteen VVER 440 MW reactors in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia.

Read the full Framatome Press Release.

The importance of the diversification of nuclear fuel suppliers has been often underlined by the Euratom Supply Agency (ENS Member) which reminded us that diversification is paramount to prevent excessive dependence of EU users on any single third-country supplier and to achieve the security of supply of nuclear fuels in the medium and long term.

Framatome has recently been appointed as leader in the new Innovation Action called SAVE, funded under the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

The project will work with €10 million in EU contribution, and it will gather 17 partners from seven EU Member States plus Ukraine.

SAVE aims to contribute to the swift and secure development and deployment of a European fuel solution for VVER reactors operating mainly in Eastern and Central Europe.

The priority of long-term strategies, investments, and further efforts towards diversification of suppliers to ensure nuclear fuel cycle security is a topic that ENS, together with Urenco (ENS Corporate Member), Euratom Supply Agency and Orano, discussed last October at the event “Fuelling Europe’s Future – Uranium Supply, Conversion and Enrichment“, which took place in Brussels.

Read more about the event in our follow-up newsletter.