French firm Areva supplies first batch of nuclear fuel to India

01 April 2009

With the 34-year embargo on international nuclear trade lifted with the signing of the US-India nuclear deal on 9 October, (See: Indo-US nuclear deal: Signed, sealed and delivered) India received its first consignment of nuclear fuel from the French nuclear power company Areva.

Areva delivered 60 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate to the Hyderabad-based Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) yesterday, as part of the agreement signed between France and India in December to supply India over 300 tonnes of uranium. (See: French nuclear giant Areva arrives in India to sign deals)

The 60 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate received from AREVA will be processed in the designated fuel plants at the Nuclear Fuel Complex.

The uranium ore concentrate will be converted into nuclear grade uranium dioxide powder, which is then compacted in the form of cylindrical pellets and sintered at high temperature to get high density uranium dioxide pellets.

The cylindrical UO2 pellets are stacked and encapsulated in thin walled tubes of zirconium alloy, both ends of which are sealed by resistance welding using zircaloy end plugs, which is a new technology made exclusively In India.

19 such fuel pins are assembled to form a fuel bundle for PHWR 220 MWe. The bundles so produced will be loaded in the Safeguarded PHWRs.