Rosatom Plans To Test New Type Of Accident-Tolerant Fuel For NPPs In 2020 -Research Center

Rosatom Plans to Test New Type of Accident-Tolerant Fuel for NPPs in 2020 -Research Center

The High-Technology Research Institute of Inorganic Materials named after Academician A.A. Bochvar, which is a part of the TVEL Fuel Company of Russia's nuclear corporation Rosatom, is working on a new type of the so-called accident-tolerant fuel, whose use is supposed to enhance the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs), the general director of the institute told Sputnik on Thursday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2019) The High-Technology Research Institute of Inorganic Materials named after Academician A.A. Bochvar, which is a part of the TVEL Fuel Company of Russia's nuclear corporation Rosatom, is working on a new type of the so-called accident-tolerant fuel, whose use is supposed to enhance the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs), the general director of the institute told Sputnik on Thursday.

"Dense uranium silicide [accident-tolerant] fuel is of particular interest [for the institute]. We are planning [to carry out] a comprehensive work to develop it and start pre-reactor tests of fuel tablets in 2020," Leonid Karpyuk said.

In late January, the TVEL Fuel Company announced that the first Russian-made experimental nuclear assemblies based on accident-tolerant fuel had been loaded for testing into the water loops of a research reactor at the State Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Russia's Dimitrovgrad.

This work is a part of the Russian company's project to develop accident-tolerant fuel to help avert accidents similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, and bring the fuel to market.