Westinghouse Fuel Performs Flawlessly in Ukraine NPP, Experts Say

Westinghouse Electric Company's fuel at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant's Unit 3 has performed flawlessly over at least three nuclear cycles, the company has said in a statement.

Inspections at the Yuzhno-Ykrainskaya (South Ukraine) NPP included the examination of six Westinghouse fuel assemblies between February 15 and March 1 of this year.

"Following comprehensive inspections of all nuclear fuel at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, it has been concluded by joint Energoatom and Westinghouse experts that the Westinghouse fuel has performed exactly to specification and has not exhibited any flaws in its operation, as expected," in the words of Yves Brachet, Westinghouse President Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

Following the inspections, 42 fuel assemblies delivered last autumn will be loaded into Unit 3 in the days to come.

Westinghouse Electric Company presently provides 145 plants around the world with nuclear fuel, 65 of them in Europe.

In December of last year, it signed with Ukraine's nuclear utility Energoatom a contact extension of fuel supply to VVER 1000 reactors. The company will now provide increase volumes of fuel by 2020.