Finland's Fortum Replaces Russian Nuclear Fuel With U.S. Fuel 

Finnish power utility Fortum has announced that it has successfully started using nuclear fuel from U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric as it seeks to replace Russian supply. For years, Fortum's Loviisa power plant in Finland has sourced its nuclear fuel from TVEL, a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom; however, Fortum began hunting for a new fuel source two years ago after Russia invaded Ukraine. The new fuel includes uranium, the fuel assemblies, and also the enrichment process originating from Western sources. Fortum's two nuclear reactors in Loviisa account for around 10% of total power production in Finland.

"The loading of the new fuel is a significant milestone that guarantees a reliable Western alternative for fuel. Fortum said in a statement, adding that the first Westinghouse fuel had been loaded during the power plant's annual outage in August

"For the first time in Loviisa's history, we have fully Western fuel," Fortum's head of nuclear generation Petra Lundstrom said. However, CEO Markus Rauramo has said that Fortum would respect its existing contracts with TVEL, which run until 2027 and 2030. Although Europe has been trying to distance itself from Russian energy,  including oil and gas, it’s still heavily dependent on some Russian commodities.

"When it comes to fuel fabrication, Westinghouse could supply all that the European Union needs but today Russia is very dominant in conversion and enrichment," Choho told Reuters.

Other than Finland, four more EU states namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are working with Westinghouse Electric to replace Russian nuclear fuel. 

Last week,  Finland unveiled the world’s first deep-earth repository where it will bury nuclear waste for 100,000 years starting 2026. Dubbed ‘‘Onkalo’’, the repository is entombed in a bedrock more than 400 meters below the forests of southwest Finland. The facility sits atop a warren of tunnels sited next to three nuclear reactors on the island of Olkiluoto, approximately 240 kilometers from the capital of Helsinki. The Onkalo project is based on the so-called “KBS-3” method developed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company. KBS-3 is based on a multi-barrier principle whereby if one of the engineered barriers were to fail, the isolation of the radioactive waste is not compromised.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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