MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2021) Russia's nuclear fuel company, TVEL, a part of state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, said on Wednesday that it plans to begin supplying nuclear fuel for China's CFR-600 fast-neutron reactor, which is under construction in the southeastern Fujian province, starting in 2023.
In January 2019, TVEL finalized a supply agreement with the China National Nuclear Corporation. According to the Russian company, its affiliate, Machinery Manufacturing Plant, created a special production site and modernized its manufacturing process for fast-neutron reactor fuel. The new site's definitive feature is its universality, as its equipment can be used for producing fuel for either China's CEFR and CFR-600 reactors and also Russia's BN-600 for the third power unit of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station in the Sverdlovsk Region.
"The start of CFR-600 fuel supplies to China is scheduled for 2023," TVEL said in a statement.
Beijing asked Moscow whether it wanted to work together in building a pilot CFR-600 reactor in 2017. China started building the reactor in December of that year. On June 8, 2018, the two countries signed nuclear cooperation agreements, the most ever signed in the history of bilateral cooperation in this area. They included an intergovernmental agreement to build the CFR-600 reactor and a framework contract on supplying equipment and services for the project.
The fast-neutron reactor, as opposed to the conventional thermal-neutron reactor, provides the opportunity to conduct a wide range of experiments in a relatively shortened amount of time.
