Kazatomprom makes another shipment of nuclear fuel to Chinese nuclear power plants

ASTANA. Oct 16 (Interfax) - Kazakh nuclear company Kazatomprom has made another shipment of nuclear fuel to China for its nuclear power plant reactors, this time of over 30 tonnes of low-enriched uranium, the company said in a statement.

Fuel assemblies (FA) were manufactured by the joint Kazakh-Chinese enterprise Ulba-TVS LLP and are intended for the Yangjiang NPP.

Ulba-TVS continues to increase volumes to reach full production capacity of 200 tonnes of uranium in the form of fuel assemblies per year. The company has a guaranteed sales market for 20 years going forward.

As previously reported, the delivery of the first batch of fuel assemblies from the Ulba-TVS LLP plant to nuclear power plants in China occurred in December last year, while the second was delivered in May 2023. By the end of this year, several more shipments of nuclear fuel are expected to be delivered to China.

The Ulba-TVS LLP plant was commissioned in November 2021 after receiving certification from the owner of the production technology for AFA 3G design fuel assemblies, French company Framatome, and receiving recognition as a certified nuclear fuel supplier from the end user, CGNPC-URC.

In 2024, Ulba-TVS plans to increase production volumes to reach full production capacity

The founders of the joint venture were the Ulba Metallurgical Plant JSC (a subsidiary of NAC Kazatomprom JSC, 51%) and Chinese CGNPC-URC (part of China General Nuclear Power Corporation, 49%).

State-controlled Kazatomprom is engaged in the mining of uranium, the processing of rare metals and the production and marketing of beryllium and tantalum products. Kazakhstan annually supplies more than 45% of the world nuclear energy needs for uranium products.