Westinghouse And EDF To Cooperate On EnCore® ATF Technology

Westinghouse Electric Company announced a partnership with EDF (both ENS Corporate Members) to explore the functionalities of Westinghouse’s EnCore® enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) technology.

Westinghouse will study its EnCore fuel in an EDF reactor for potential deployment across the EDF nuclear fleet after 2030.

This will be the largest R&D program on enhanced fuel that Westinghouse has conducted in Europe to date.

Westinghouse will deliver assemblies with Lead Test Rods (LTR) to EDF from its fuel fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden by 2023. The initiative includes the licensing, qualification, fabrication, delivery and operation of the LTR in an EDF 1300 MWe reactor.

Westinghouse also will conduct a post-irradiation exam to verify the enhanced accident tolerance features in EDF’s reactors under operating conditions.

Read the full Westinghouse Press Release.

In 2019 the US Department of Energy awarded $93.6m to Westinghouse in support of its EnCore fuel programme.

During the same year, the first insertion of EnCore fuel assemblies into a commercial nuclear power plant took place in Byron-2 nuclear power plant, Illinois.

The first insertion of EnCore Fuel rod assemblies in Europe, and the second insertion into a commercial nuclear power plant worldwide, has been in Belgium at Doel-4, in cooperation with ENUSA (ENS Corporate Member).

Last January, Westinghouse also signed an agreement with US nuclear operator Southern Nuclear for the loading of EnCore test assemblies at the Vogtle-2 nuclear power unit in Georgia.