Slovenské elektrárne signs Russian fuel supply deal

Wednesday, 5 June 2019

TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, said today that the agreements, which followed a public tender for the work, had been signed in Moscow in the presence of the Russian and Slovak Prime Ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Peter Pellegrini.

Russian nuclear fuel will be supplied to the four operational power units with VVER-440 reactors at Bohunice NPP and Mochovce NPP, as well as two new VVER-440 Mochovce units, which are at the final construction stage.

TVEL President Natalia Nikipelova said that, together with Slovak specialists, the company will optimise the fuel cycle strategy of the Slovak NPPs in order to improve their economic efficiency.

"All the functioning power units of Slovak NPPs operate on nuclear fuel produced at the Machine-Building Plant in Elektrostal, which is already fulfilling orders for new Slovak nuclear power generation," she said.

Branislav Strýček, general director of Slovenské elektrárne, added: "I'm pleased that by signing this contract we have successfully completed the long and difficult process of selecting a supplier of nuclear fuel for our nuclear power plants in the next few years. I believe that this will continue to ensure a high level of safety and reliability of fuel supplies."

Slovakia has 1940 MWe of installed nuclear power capacity. The two units at Bohunice, which were commissioned in 1984 and 1985, and the two at Mochovce (1998 and 1999) annually produce about 15 terawatt hours of electricity, which is around 55% of total electricity generation in the country. It is the second country worldwide in terms of the share of nuclear generation in its energy mix, TVEL said, and the ratio will increase further after the commissioning of Mochovce units 3 & 4 "in the near future."