France's Framatome (formerly AREVA NP) will deliver 10 reloads of fuel assemblies to the Swedish nuclear power reactors Forsmark 3 and Ringhals 3 and 4, operated by Vattenfall, the company said. The contracts, which run from 2021 to 2024, include additional options for two reloads for each reactor after 2024.
Regarding the fuel reload of the Forsmark plant, the contract also provides, besides the use of the known ATRIUM 10 XM boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel design, the access to the new ATRIUM 11 fuel design, which is the leading BWR fuel design technology commercialized in the last years by Framatome. For Ringhals, the company will provide the “GAIA” pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel design.
The fuel assemblies will be manufactured at Framatome’s facility in Lingen, Germany for Forsmark 3, a boiling water reactor on the east coast of Sweden with an installed net capacity of 1,167 megawatts that was connected to the grid in 1985 and for Ringhals 3 and 4, which are pressurized water reactors with an installed net capacity of 1,064 and 1,130 megawatts, respectively. The two Ringhals units, located on Sweden's west coast, were connected to the grid in 1980 and 1982.
“The new contracts strengthen our position in the Nordic market. Once again we proved our ability to provide competitive fuel for diverse reactor designs and to grant our customer great flexibility regarding products and schedule at the same time”, said Lionel Gaiffe, Senior Executive Vice President of Framatome’s Fuel Business Unit.