Finland chooses American nuclear fuel over Russian
Finnish power company Fortum has announced that it has started successfully using nuclear fuel from US-based Westinghouse Electric in an effort to replace Russian supplies.
For years, Finland's Loviisa power plant in Fortum has received its nuclear fuel from TVEL, a subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom; However, Fortum began looking for a new fuel source two years ago, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new fuel includes uranium, fuel assemblies and the enrichment process from Western sources.
Fortum's two nuclear reactors in Loviisa account for around 10% of Finland's total electricity generation: “The loading of the new fuel is a significant milestone that ensures a reliable Western alternative for the fuel.” Fortum said in a statement, adding that the first Westinghouse fuel was loaded during the plant's annual outage in August. “For the first time in Loviisa's history, we have a completely Western fuel,” said Petra Lundstrom, head of nuclear generation at Fortum.
Chief Executive Officer Markus Rauramo said Fortum will honor existing contracts with TVEL, which run through 2027 and 2030. Although Europe is trying to distance itself from Russian energy, including oil and gas, it is still heavily dependent from some Russian raw materials.
Nuclear energy is very important for Finland, as it provides around 33% of the country's electricity, which, for the rest, essentially depends on hydroelectric and fossil fuel cogeneration
Finnish electric mix. Source reserchgate
“When it comes to fuel production, Westinghouse could provide everything the European Union needs, but today Russia is very dominant in conversion and enrichment,” Choho told Reuters.
In addition to Finland, four other EU states, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, are working with Westinghouse Electric to replace Russian nuclear fuel.
Last week, Finland unveiled the world's first deep repository, where it will bury nuclear waste for 100,000 years from 2026. Called “Onkalo,” the repository is buried in a bed of rock more than 400 meters deep under the forests of southwestern Finland. The plant sits atop a maze of tunnels located next to three nuclear reactors on the island of Olkiluoto, about 240 kilometers from the capital Helsinki. The Onkalo project is based on the so-called “KBS-3” method, developed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company. The KBS-3 is based on the multiple barrier principle, according to which if one of the engineered barriers were to fail, the isolation of the radioactive waste would not be compromised.
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The article Finland chooses American nuclear fuel over Russian one comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-finlandia-sceglie-il-combustibile-nucleare-usa-al-posto-del-russo/ on Tue, 03 Sep 2024 10:00:14 +0000.