BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 10
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazatomprom has commissioned the new Ulba Fuel Assembly plant on November 10, Trend reports citing the company.
Ulba-FA LLP is a Kazakh and Chinese joint venture; the founders are UMP JSC (a subsidiary of Kazatomprom JSC) holding a 51 percent interest, and CGNPC-URC (a subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power Corporation), holding a 49 percent interest.
The plant was constructed using high-tech equipment manufactured in China, France and USA to manufacture fuel assemblies (“FA”), which are engineering for the generation of thermal power inside a nuclear reactor.
The state-of-the-art technology of French company Framatome, one of the global leaders in fuel assembly manufacturing, was selected to be used for the Ulba-FA LLP plant.
A single FA consists of 264 fuel rods, which are long metal rods loaded with uranium fuel pellets, which are manufactured by the Ulba Metallurgical Plant.
Therefore, in addition to its own new production, the new FA plant will also be using the pellet manufacturing capabilities of the Ulba Metallurgical Plant.
Ulba-FA LLP has obtained a Framatome certificate confirming that the plant is authorized and capable of manufacturing AFA 3GTM assemblies with a capacity of 200 tons of uranium per year.
Moreover, all requirements of CGNPC-URC, the guaranteed purchaser of the fuel assemblies, have been met, and the plant has obtained the status of being a certified supplier for the Chinese nuclear industry.
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