TVEL, the fuel company of the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom, has sent the nuclear fuel simulators it produced for the first unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NGS), which is under construction, to Turkiye.
In addition to the fuel simulators produced at TVEL Fuel Company’s production facility in West Siberia, Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant, control rod models for reactor control and protection and the necessary tools for the control of nuclear fuel were also shipped to Turkiye.
Fuel beam simulators and control rod models are loaded into the reactor core and then unloaded to test the plant’s key systems before commissioning a new power unit. The reactor core of the 3+ generation power units consists of 163 fuel bundles with uranium fuel.
The first nuclear fuel required for the first power unit of Akkuyu NPP is planned to be sent in 2023. The long-term contract for the supply of nuclear fuel for all power units of Akkuyu NPP was signed in late 2017 between TVEL and Akkuyu power plant Nuclear Inc.
In addition, Rosatom’s subsidiary TVEL Inc.’s Central Institute of Design and Technology (MTTE Inc.) will also supply Russian-made refueling machines used for nuclear fuel loading and spent fuel replacement for each unit of the nuclear power plant. It is planned to ship the fuel loading machine to the first power unit of Akkuyu NPP in 2023.
Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz