Recent fuel related activities at the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant

The VVER-440 units at the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant have operated now for 38 and 40 years. Collecting, analyzing and utilizing fuel reliability experience has in part enabled almost 80 reactor years of safe operation at Loviisa NPP. Experience also plays a role in the assessment of the future of the VVER-440 units in Loviisa. The fuel reliability experience at the Loviisa NPP has been very good and the fuel failure rates have been very low. Systematic inspection of spent fuel assemblies, and especially all failed assemblies, is a good practice that is employed at Loviisa NPP in order to improve fuel reliability and operational safety. Investigation of the root cause of fuel failures is important in developing ways to prevent similar failures in the future. Inspection of spent fuel also provides valuable data for evaluating possibilities for optimized fuel operation. The operational and fuel reliability experience at Loviisa NPP has been presented in the previous international seminars on WWER Fuel Performance, Modelling and Experimental Support. In this paper the information on fuel reliability experience at Loviisa NPP is updated. The latest development and future prospects of fuel operation at Loviisa NPP are presented. In addition, a short summary of the status of nuclear power in Finland is provided. Keywords: VVER-440, fuel reliability, operational experience, poolside inspections, improvement of fuel operation.