US company Westinghouse and French company Framatome have won the tender to supply nuclear fuel assemblies for the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant, in Czechia. Deliveries will start in 2024 and continue for approximately 15 years.
Three bidders, Framatome, TVEL and Westinghouse, participated in the tender launched in April 2020. Due to diversification, two suppliers were finally selected so that Czech utility group CEZ could reliably ensure a continuous supply of fuel cells for the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant’s reactors in the future, thus minimising the risks of a possible supply outage.
Both winning companies are world leaders in the nuclear power industry. Westinghouse, with a manufacturing plant in Sweden, has already supplied fuel assemblies to Temelín for ten years after its commissioning. Framatome is the only manufacturer based in the European Union that supplies fuel assemblies to most Western European nuclear power plants.
Since the beginning of the year, the Temelín plant has generated 4.9 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity and provided 20 per cent of the annual electricity consumption in Czechia. Together with Dukovany, these plants produce the largest amount of clean electricity and thus significantly contribute to CEZ Group’s emission-free generation.