The Finnish company Fortum has announced the transition of its Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant to the fuel of the American company Westinghouse Electric Company. Before that, the station used fuel from Russia.
“The first batch of nuclear fuel supplied by the American company, Westinghouse, has been loaded into the second reactor at the nuclear power plant. The loading of new fuel marks an important milestone, as it guarantees a reliable western alternative to the supply of fuel for the Loviissa power plant,” said Fortum.
Prior to Westinghouse Electric Company, fuel for the Loviisa NPP was supplied by a subsidiary of the Russian corporation, Rosatom, TVEL JSC.
In 2018, TVEL announced that the current contractual relationship between TVEL and Fortum provided for the supply of nuclear fuel for both power units at the Loviissa NPP until the end of its service life. Finnish NPPs were supplied with second-generation uranium-gadolinium fuel for VVER-440 reactors manufactured by MSZ PJSC (a manufacturing company of the TVEL Fuel Company located in Elektrostal, Moscow Region).
The Loviisa nuclear power plant with a total capacity of 1,014 MW has two Russian-designed VVER-type reactors, which were commissioned alternately in 1977 and 1980. It is located on Hjastholmen Island, adjacent to Finland’s southern coast, 15 kilometers from the city of Lovisa. In February 2023, Finnish authorities granted a new operating license for the plant until 2050.
Nuclear fuel from Russia and Rosatom Corporation were sanctioned by the UK and the US in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the UK imposed sanctions on members of Rosatom’s Board of Directors. In 2024, US President Joe Biden signed a law banning the import of uranium from Russia, which prohibits imports of low-enriched uranium produced by Russian enterprises or in the Russian Federation.
