Kazakhstan wants China to buy more nuclear fuel assemblies

The Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP), a subsidiary of the national company Kazatomprom, is negotiating with the Chinese nuclear stations as it wants to increase its exports of fuel assemblies, according to Sergey Bezhetskiy, head of the UMP.

«We can boost the production whenever we want. Concerning fuel assemblies, we have all the necessary equipment that allows us to produce up to 400 tons per year. There is no need to buy something. All we need is to change the work style and work in two shifts. We are constantly negotiating with the Chinese about an increase in supply. They want us to supply fuel assemblies to the reactors they are constructing in Hualong and any other nuclear power plants they build around the globe,» Bezhetskiy told at the media briefing.

The distribution of fuel assembly is the core task for Ulba-TVS, a joint venture run by the UMP (51%) and Chinese CGNPC-URC (a subsidiary of CGNPC). According to Kazatomprom, the facility has a capacity of 200 fuel assemblies per year or 440 physical pieces of fuel assemblies (one fuel assembly weighs about 500 kg). The production cycle here is based on the fuel assembly design by French Framatome. During a specially organized tour for the media, representatives of the UMP said that 200 tons of fuel assemblies are produced by one shift. If there are additional orders for the product, the plant can operate in two shifts and produce up to 400 tons of fuel assemblies.

As Bezhitskiy noted, the Kazakhstani-Chinese joint venture has operated since 2017 under a 20-year contract. Moreover, the company can supply fuel assemblies for the first nuclear plant in Kazakhstan.

«A nuclear plant is necessary for Kazakhstan. Can we supply fuel assemblies to a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan? Of course, we can. But there is one condition. A reactor for that plant must be based on Chinese or French design. I mean, if the government chooses a Russian or South Korean design for the nuclear plant, we won’t be able to do so. It would require organizing a new production site, which won’t be economically justified if we are talking about just one reactor or 35 tons. In order to make such a project economically attractive, we have to produce at least 200 tons per year. Otherwise, it will be much easier just to acquire fuel assemblies from someone else,» he said.

The official also explained why the Chinese decided to work with Kazakhstan despite having its own fuel assembly production capabilities.

«They are interested in our resources. We have established a joint venture on uranium production and the Chinese have a 49% share in that company. In return, we got an opportunity to build our fuel assembly production site within our territory,» Berezhitskiy reported.

According to Yerzhan Mukanov, head of Ulba-TVS, the company is expected to produce 160 tons of fuel assemblies this year and reach its full capacity (for one shift) by December. This means that in 2024 the company will produce 200 tons of the product.

In December 2022, Ulba-TVS sent the first batch of fuel assemblies of 34 containers (about 30 tons) to a nuclear power plant run by the Chinese nuclear corporation CGNPC-URC.

A plant with the designed capacity of 200 tons per year officially entered into operation in November 2021 right after the certification by Framatome, which owns the technology for fuel assemblies designed for the AFA 3G type reactor, and CGNPC-URC. Ulba-TVS has signed a long-term contract with the Chinese nuclear corporation and will supply it with the product over the next 20 years.

Fuel assemblies by Ulba-TVS are made from Kazakhstani uranium processed at the UMP, which is a subsidiary of Kazatomprom.

The fuel assembly is a structured group of metal tubes containing pellets of uranium used in nuclear reactors as fuel. In Kazakhstan, these pellets are produced by the UMP.

Kazatomprom is the world’s largest producer of uranium. It accounts for 24% of all uranium produced in the world every year. By now, the company is operating 26 mines combined in 14 entities focused on the production of uranium.