Work insights

The APIS project has a rather simple work plan structure consisting of 11 work packages, which is suitable for the complexity and size of the project. The work plan is logically planned and is linked to available human resources as well as infrastructure at partner organizations to create maximum efficiency of the implementation and quality of the results of the project. Most of the work packages are parallel to each other, yet there are clear milestones. The project life cycle is planned for 36 months starting from 1 January 2023. The work packages are:

The objective is to develop safe fuel designs for VVER-440 plants within the European Union and Ukraine. The emergent VVER-440 fuel designs will ensure European energy security by:

• Developing fixed and follower VVER-440 fuel designs for delivery in 2023 as a solution to the emergent European energy situation, caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Performing the analyses and tests for these fuel designs required to meet applicable safety standards, design criteria and regulatory requirements.
• Upgrading or newly design necessary test equipment and test loops. This is required due to the long time that has elapsed since VVER-440 fuel was last produced within the European Union.

The objectives for this work package are to develop safe fuel designs with improved fuel economics for operation in all VVER-440 plants within the European Union and Ukraine without restrictions. The work package aims to ensure the European energy security by:

• Developing fixed and follower VVER-440 fuel designs for delivery in 2024 for improved fuel economics and to enable operation in all EU plants without restrictions.
• Performing the analyses and tests for these fuel designs required to meet applicable safety standards, design criteria and regulatory requirements.

The objective is to develop safe fuel designs with improved fuel economics for VVER-1000 and VVER-440 plants within the European Union and Ukraine. The work package aims to ensure the European energy security by:

• Developing a VVER-1000 fuel design with reduced pressure drop, improved thermal margins and improved strength targeting Lead Test Assemblies deliveries in 2025 and onwards.
• Evaluate design improvements in terms of ADOPT pellets and oxide coating for introduction earliest 2025.
• Initiate the development of the next generation VVER-440 fuel designs to further improve fuel economics, targeting deliveries from 2027 and onwards.

The objective is to identify a general approach to fast licensing and deploy alternative fuel for VVER reactors in the EU and Ukraine that satisfy international safety standards (e.g., the Standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)). The work package will reach this objective by:

• Completing the missing licensing information and revise accordingly the integrated VVER 440 licensing scope and the “Interface Document for Fuel Licensing” developed by the previous ESSANUF project (Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 671546) and, in this way, validate the approach for the entire European Union as well as in Ukraine.
• The analyses performed for fuel and core operability will be defined as a general approach for all countries according to high safety standards accepted internationally.
• Acceptance for this approach will be ensured by workshops with Regulatory organizations in Finland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine and the Utilities.

The objective is to develop manufacturing and/or supply chain re-instatement for VVER-440 fuel. The work package aims to ensure the European energy security by:

• Re-qualification of existing manufacturing equipment.
• Work related to procurement of manufacturing equipment.
• Supply chain activities, like establishment of sub-suppliers and qualification of sub-suppliers.
• Providence of increased security of supply of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors by ensuring capacity and redundancy by the involvement of the two fuel manufacturing plants WSE (Sweden), and ENUSA (Spain).

This work package aims at implementing advanced technology fuel materials properties in the TRANSURANUS fuel performance simulation platform, along with modern methodologies for model development and calibration as well as uncertainty quantification. In addition, modern coupling interfaces of TRANSURANUS with system codes such as DYN3D, ATHLET and RELAP will be established.

The objective is to identify how to operate the nuclear power plant for increased safety and prolongation of the lifetime of the VVER plants within the European Union and Ukraine to secure future energy supplies. The work package will reach this objective by:

• Investigate the fuel design impact on the lifetime of a nuclear power plant.
• Investigate different shielding concepts to protect the reactor vessel and reactor internals.

The objective is to further develop necessary codes to contribute to high quality safe and efficient core design work. This objective will be fulfilled through development, validation, and verification of thermal hydraulics, neutronics and core simulator codes.

The objective is to ensure safe operation of fuel, follow-up by inspections of the fuel is commonly used. However, for VVER plants, this has not been the tradition and hence there does not exist any equipment for inspection purposes. This work package will contribute to ensure the uninterrupted, safe operation of VVER plants by:

• Performance of the first inspections of modern Western VVER-440 fuel by using new inspection equipment especially designed for the VVER-440 plants.
• Analyses of inspection results.
• Applying the inspection results for optimizing fuel performance codes and supporting future fuel deliveries to VVER-440 plants in Ukraine and the rest of Europe.

The objective is to create maximum impact of project results, to create visibility of project activities, to create interactive communication with targeted audiences, to communicate the central messages of the project to targeted audiences and to show the contribution of EU funding to development of safer energy supply in Europe, to prepare for exploitation of results both commercially and to generate further knowledge and development.

The objective is to run an efficient and effective high-quality management of the consortium.

The vision of the project is to create greater security of energy supply and contribute to the security of supply of nuclear fuel for Russian designed pressurized water reactors operating in the EU. Following the successful design close-out and licensing of NOVA E-5 and NOVCC fuel assemblies for operation at Rivne Nuclear Power Plant unit 2 (Ukraine), the fuel assemblies from Westinghouse were loaded into the reactor. After the successful start-up of the nuclear power plant in October 2023, the plant operates with a mixed core of fuel assemblies. In 2024, also Rivne Nuclear Power Plant unit 1 (Ukraine) started operation including fixed and follower fuel assemblies from Westinghouse. Following the successful design close-out and licensing of NOVA E-6 and NOVCD fuel assemblies for operation at Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant (Finland), fuel assemblies from Westinghouse were be loaded into the reactor in August 2024.

The main achievement for the project “Accelerated Program for Implementation of secure VVER fuel Supply” is the created security of supply of nuclear fuel for Russian designed pressurized water reactors (VVER) operating in the EU and Ukraine by the design and licensing of VVER-440 fuel. European capabilities for nuclear fuel supply for reactors of VVER-440 design has been re-instated. The manufacturing capacity at Westinghouse Sweden fuel factory is proven by the production of two reloads for Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. Rivne Nuclear Power Plant unit 1 and 2 currently operate with fuel manufactured in Sweden. Increased manufacturing capacity within the European Union, also creating redundancy, is underway as re-instalment of manufacturing capacity at ENUSA in Spain is successfully proceeding.

Work performed include activities for fuel supply, including prototyping, testing, and demonstrating the fuel design in full compliance with safety standards. Development of necessary codes and methods to support licensing and verification of the safe operation of the fuel has been an integral part. Work to support regulatory standardisation framework for licensing as well as means to prolong the lifetime of VVER-reactors are under progress.