Westinghouse Electric Company said its first Triton 11 fuel assemblies had been delivered to the Olkiluoto NPP in Finland, where they will be loaded into Unit 2 at the plant during the current maintenance and refueling outage.
Eight assemblies of the new fuel will be deployed at Unit 2. Triton 11 – technically 11×11 BWR fuel – consists of square bundles of 91 full length fuel rods, 10 at one-third the maximum length, 8 at two-thirds maximum length and 3 central water channels. The boiling water reactor assemblies are available for 12-month and 24-month fuel cycles.
The fuel rod assemblies, manufactured at Westnghouse’s Vasteras plant in Sweden, are also slated for deployment at Sweden’s Oskarshamn NPP with 10 assemblies on order for the plant that operates the most powerful BWRs in the world, rated at 1400MWe. Olkiluoto ABB-III Units 1 and 2 are rated at 900MWe.
Westinghouse says the assemblies were designed for greater safety and efficiency. The assemblies include a “unique sleeve-type spacer grid, which is less prone to capture debris compared to traditional spring-type spacer grids,” the company said.