Tvel fuel, the Russian state atomic energy company, has completed the first phase of Reactor Testing for accident resistant fuel at the National Atomic Energy Reactor Research Institute in Dimitrovgrad.

In January 2019, two experimental accident resistant fuel assemblies of VVER reactor in Russia and PWR fuel rods in the West have been loaded into the water circuit with the water chemistry mode of Mir research reactor. After the first irradiation cycle, both fuel assemblies were removed from the reactor. According to tvel, a preliminary inspection conducted on site by the team of bochvar Institute of inorganic materials, a Moscow based tvel Research Institute, showed that "no change in the geometry of the fuel rods or damage to the cladding surface was found".

Tvel said it would expand its testing program to commercial reactor irradiation in 2020, and said it would load a batch of fuel assemblies with several accident resistant fuel rods into Russia's vver-1000 reactor. Accident resistant fuel is essential to further improve the overall safety and reliability of nuclear power. (From CNNPN)