Celebrating Areva’s 3,000th fuel assembly at Olkiluoto

19.2.2016

The relationship between Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) and its French supplier, Areva (KWU/Framatome), has lasted over 30 years in the area of nuclear fuel.

On Thursday, February 18, on the Finnish island of Olkiluoto, TVO took delivery of its 3,000th fuel assembly from Areva.

To mark the occasion, TVO arranged a ceremonial inspection of the delivery, which came from Areva’s Lingen plant in Germany. Present at the ceremony were Ingo Koban, Areva’s Vice President, Mining & Front End Sales Europe & South America and Robert Koch, Vice President, Services & Contracts, Germany. Representing TVO were Mikko Kosonen, Senior Vice President, Production and Mikael Solala, Head of Fuel Unit.

Says Kosonen: ”The three thousandth assembly reflects our long and good cooperation with Areva in nuclear fuel delivery. Areva delivered the first fuel assembly to us at Olkiluoto in 1983. This highlights the long-term nature and importance of trust in nuclear power generation. Customer relationships in this industry are measured in tens of years, maybe one day in hundreds.”

The 3,000th assembly was of the type Atrium 10XM and was one of a batch of 90 assemblies arriving at Olkiluoto 1 (OL1). TVO had delivered the uranium to Areva’s Lingen unit. Says Solala: ”Areva has provided us with good quality fuel, which has had an excellent utilization rate. There hasn’t been a single outage as a result of the fuel.”

Collaboration between the two companies has been impeccable, as demonstrated by the achievement, year in year out, of a common goal to continuously improve the compatibility, safety and economy of fuel for TVO’s reactors. Areva has renewed the assembly types delivered to Olkiluoto several times over the years. For example, there are currently eight test assemblies of Areva’s more advanced Atrium 11 assembly type at Olkiluoto 1.

The existing fuel contract between Areva and TVO extends to 2019. Areva will also produce the fuel for initial core loading of OL3 in 2017.

From the left: Mikael Solala, Kari Ranta-Puska, Ingo Koban and Robert Koch.

Share