Energy security

Russian Firm Successfully Tests Mixed Nuclear Fuel in Fast Neutron Reactor

Russia’s state nuclear fuel company TVEL said Tuesday it had successfully tested experimental fuel bundles for an advanced lead-cooled fast reactor that will revolutionize the nuclear energy industry.

"Experimental fuel assemblies produced at the Siberian Chemical Factory as part of the Proryv [Breakthrough] project have proven to be effective during tests inside the reactor and during follow-up research," the company’s statement read. The so-called fuel assemblies are structured bundles of fuel rods used to power reactors. Russian scientists at TVEL, a firm within Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom, used bunches of uranium-plutonium oxide and nitride fuels.