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   publius (publius@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Saturday, 18-Feb-2023 15:48:20 JST publius

   • Kermode
   • Kirti

   @gemlog @KayKap

   Yes, the standard Russian deal is to supply the entire plant, plus fuel, and take away the spent fuel to their reprocessing plants.

   If you have good reason (as, for instance, Ukraine does!) for wanting out of that deal, Western fuel fabricators can now supply assemblies of suitable designs. (The basic difference between the VVER fuel and its Western equivalent is that VVER assemblies are hexagonal and Western ones are square.) So it's not total vendor lock-in.

   • clacke likes this.
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     publius (publius@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Saturday, 18-Feb-2023 15:48:22 JST publius

     in reply to

     • Kermode
     • Kirti

     @gemlog @KayKap

     As an interesting sidelight : there is no generic LWR fuel. Core-design calculations have to be run for each reload, and the assemblies have to be tailored to match the desired reactivity profile, taking into account the history of the assemblies which are not being exchanged (but may be moved around). AREVA figures suggest that this is a full-time job for a nuclear engineer for each reactor supported.

     Meanwhile, each and every CANDU bundle is identical.

     clacke likes this.