 Every year a significant profit share is allocated by OAO “Mashinostroitelny Zavod” for the modernization and upgrade of the process, inspection and test equipment as well as for the implementation of new technologies, inspection and test methods and personnel training.
On 21 March 2003 top managers of OAO MSZ, OAO TVEL and Framatome ANP signed the protocol on the commissioning of the dry conversion plant for the production of uranium dioxide powder.
The commissioning of the above plant will improve quality characteristics of the powder being a matter of critical importance for the finished nuclear fuel quality. The new dry conversion plant has also significantly increased production capacities of the company. With the new conversion plant added to the already existing production line that was granted the National Award of the Russian Federation in the year 2000, the uranium powder output will increase up  to 1400 t per year reaching the best world’s level among fuel manufacturers. The new dry conversion plant is characterized by a high level of nuclear and radiation safety.
OAO MSZ has implemented the technology of fabricating nuclear fuel with fuel-integrated burnable Er and Gd absorbers. Application of the fuel containing burnable absorbers significantly enhances nuclear reactor safety and performance characteristics due to the flattening of power density achieved by means of reducing FA power and increasing fuel burn-up.
In 2004 production line for manufacturing fuel under Framatome ANP projects was commissioned.  High level of automation achieved with the help of production lines for fuel rod manufacturing contributed a lot to a significant increase of the level of production process cleanliness. The research has proven possible to exclude the operation of acid etching of the fuel rod surface from the production cycle. The operation of acid etching was added to the production process in the 60-s, when the production was manual, with the purpose to remove contamination from the cladding outer surface. To make a decision on excluding this time-consuming and environmentally dangerous operation from the production process, a demonstration batch of VVER-440 fuel assemblies was manufactured in 2003 without chemical treatment of fuel rods. Those fuel assemblies are operating in one of the power units of Kola NPP. |