Russian fuel company TVEL to supply Polish research reactor

The Russian news agency TASS said TVEL, a Russian nuclear fuel producer, will supply the Maria research reactor in Poland, TVEL said on Monday.

The report said the company will supply the reactor with a new kind of low-enriched uranium developed in Russia. Poland houses two research reactors that were designed by the former Soviet Union. Currently, only the Maria reactor remains, and it is the only nuclear reactor present in the country. Its counterpart, the Eve reactor, ceased operations in 1995.

The article said this will be the first time the company will be supplying nuclear fuel to the Polish reactor after a seven-year break. This agreement between the National Center for Nuclear Research and the company followed a competitive bidding process in which TVEL was selected. The agreement also has been approved by the European Atomic Energy Community.

The MARIA reactor has an operational capacity of 30 megawatts of generating power and was first launched in 1974. Currently, the reactor is used to carry out various testing activities, including fuel and structural testing for nuclear power components, transmutation of neurons, activation analysis, reactor physics, and technology training and production of radioisotopes.