Fuel Pellets

The next stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, after enrichment, is production of fuel pellets from uranium dioxide (UO2).

Fuel pellets are one of the main compounds of nuclear fuel for NPP. In the work process of nuclear reactors they are intended for emission and further transfer of heat, in enormous amounts (arising as a result of the splitting of uranium isotope with the atomic weight 235) from pellets to a coolant turning NPP turbines for production of electricity and/or heat.

The operational capability of the nuclear power unit, and its economic indexes, to a great extent, depends on the quality of the fuel pellets. Fuel pellet quality is determined not only by judging conformity with specification requirements, but also by their reproducibility i.e. the presence of the necessary properties and qualitative indicators in each pellet. The more pellets are “similar” (judging by their geometrical dimension, chemical analysis, mechanical characteristic and ability to bear the temperature split arising in the course of the reactor’s operational process), the more economic and safe the work of nuclear reactor.

That is why the task of fuel pellet production facilities is to set up the fuel pellet production process in such a way as to provide maximum conformity with the customer’s specification requirements.

The Fuel pellet production process is always difficult and needs a well worked out, technologically intensive, process. The Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP) in Ust-Kamenogorsk – a subsidiary enterprise of Kazatomprom - boasts such a production process.

The UMP uranium production facility is one of the world’s largest enterprises producing fuel compounds for NPP; it is an intensive, automatically controlled, scientific production complex possessing unique technologies. For close to 40 years, the facility has provided high-efficiency fuel pellet production for Russian-design reactors such as VVER and RBMK.

In the light of the realization of Kazatomprom’s strategic task, to become a leader in the world market of nuclear fuel for nuclear power reactors, one of the main aims of the Company’s uranium production is to gain access to the world market; with its uranium dioxide powder (natural and low enriched) and fuel pellets for fuel production for PWR, BWR, CANDU reactors and Russian-design reactors located outside of the territory of the Russian Federation.

Kazatomprom is already a certified supplier of uranium dioxide powder to the American company General Electric. The uranium dioxide powder is used for fuel production for BWR reactors.

To solve the set task, Kazatomprom conducts active work on qualification tests and fuel compound certification together with its partners from Japan, Korea, China, the USA, France, and Canada. Work programs are fulfilled in cooperation with the world’s leading nuclear companies, reactor development engineers and producers and suppliers of fuel for the following NPPs: AREVANP, Westinghouse Electric Company, СGNPC, CNNC, Nuclear Fuel Industries, the Kansai Electric Power Co. and the Sumitomo Corporation, as well as NNC AEI of the Republic of Kazakhstan, FSUE “NRSRI SNC of the Russian Federation” and the international Halden Reactor Project.

In 2007 Kazatomprom and CGNPС (the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation) entered into a contract on cooperation in the sphere of nuclear fuel production for Chinese NPP. Under the terms of the Contract, Kazatomprom is to both widely and deeply cooperate with CGNPC, internationally, in the sphere of nuclear power and nuclear fuel production and will also become one of the nuclear fuel suppliers for CGNPC’s NPP. The Governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the People’s Republic of China encourage the cooperation of Kazatomprom and CGNPC in the nuclear sphere. The China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation is the largest state enterprise in China producing clean energy, under the control of the State Committee on control and management of government assets, mainly specializing in NPP construction and operation. CGNPС plans to control almost half of the total volume of the nuclear power of the country, possessing up to 50% of all NPPs to be built in China.

Work is also conducted in the sphere of development, the carrying out of qualification tests and the licensing of new promising fuel types - at different reactor bases - such as modified uranium-gadolinium fuel, uranium-nitride and uranium-beryllium fuel. New fuels are invoked to meet constantly upgrading customer requirements for optimization of the fuel cycle and the raising of the technical and economic indexes of NPP.

As a result of Kazatomprom’s strategic program fulfillment, the Ulba Metallurgical Plant is to become a facility producing fuel pellets, and its own nuclear fuel, for all types of reactors.