Rosatom starts production of zirconium sponge for nuclear fuel

05.10.2021

Chepetsky Mechanical Plant (ChMP), an enterprise of Rosatom’s TVEL Fuel Company in Glazov, Russia’s Udmurt Republic, has mastered the technology of zirconium sponge production. The ceremony of the new facility launch took place on October 5, 2021 with participation of Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev and President of TVEL Fuel Company Natalia Nikipelova.

Until now, ChMP, the sole Russian enterprise manufacturing zirconium goods, has only used fluoride technology for production of electrolytic zirconium powder. In the common global practice, structural materials of nuclear fuel are made of zirconium sponge. Compared to the fluoride technology, the new sponge production contains half the number of technological operations, has lower consumption of raw materials and energy, the volume of waste is also significantly reduced, while ensuring the high purity of zirconium (in terms of hafnium content).

“Mastering zirconium sponge is a major landmark for zirconium production in Rosatom. Development of our own technology from scratch and construction of the new industrial facility is a huge achievement of our researchers and engineers, an important contribution to our global competitiveness. Zirconium sponge can be widely applied in fabrication of nuclear fuel for all major types of power reactors, both of Russian and foreign design,” Natalya Nikipelova, President of TVEL Fuel Company, commented.

The launch of the new facility at the site of Chepetsky Mechanical Plant is the result of the long-term large-scale work and the wide cooperation of Rosatom enterprises. Development of the own zirconium sponge production required solving a number of issues which the Russian researches, constructors and machine-builders had never faced before. The complete technological cycle and all the equipment for zirconium sponge production were designed and manufactured in Russia. In process, more than 100 new technical solutions were developed, 17 inventions and patents were registered.

The most important part of the project was development of the last one – the twelfth technological conversion (stage), which was the rectification separation of zirconium and hafnium chlorides. A unique for the Russian industry facility was built and launched at the ChMP site – the installation for separating zirconium and hafnium chlorides. The height of the facility is over 80 m, it includes 147 units of equipment, more than 2000 sensors of the control and automation system, more than 2000 meters of heated pipelines. The introduced technology of zirconium and hafnium chlorides separation enabled obtaining zirconium tetrachloride of extremely high purity (with a hafnium content of less than 100 ppm), which is important for efficient nuclear fuel operation.

Design and development of the new installation included mastering the technology of manufacturing equipment from nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy, for the first time in Russia, as well as development of pumps for pumping melts, heat and mass exchangers.

TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom (the Fuel division of the State Corporation Rosatom) includes enterprises for the manufacture of nuclear fuel, conversion and enrichment of uranium, production of gas centrifuges, as well as research and design organizations.

This year the company celebrates its 25th anniversary. Established in 1996, today the company is one of the largest suppliers of fuel for the global nuclear power industry, continues to strengthen its position by implementing new production projects. In the entire history of TVEL, there have been no complaints from customers about the quality of products. Being the only supplier of nuclear fuel for Russian nuclear power plants, TVEL provides fuel to a total of 75 power reactors in 15 countries, research reactors in nine countries of the world, as well as transport reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world is powered by TVEL fuel.

Rosatom's fuel division is the world's largest producer of enriched uranium, as well as the leader of the global market for stable isotopes. The Fuel Division is actively developing new businesses in the field of chemistry, metallurgy, energy storage technologies, 3D printing, digital products, as well as decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Rosatom's industry integrators for additive technologies and power storage systems have been created in the Fuel Company TVEL circuit. http://www.tvel.ru