Russian fuel company TVEL (part of Rosatom) said on 16 March that it is to supply nuclear fuel components for Egypt’s ETRR-2 research reactor, located at the Egyptian National Nuclear Research Centre in Inshas. The Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NCCP - part of TVEL) and the Egyptian Atomic Energy Organisation (EAEA) have signed contract documents for the supply of another batch of low-enriched nuclear fuel components in 2021. The supplies come under a long-term framework contract for the export to Egypt of nuclear fuel components for the ETRR-2 reactor, concluded in 2020. The product range includes uranium components as well as aluminium alloys and aluminium powders. The first deliveries under this contract were made in 2020, despite the restrictions associated with coronavirus pandemic.

“The Egyptian customer is completely satisfied with the performance of the contract,” said NCCP General Director Aleksey Zhiganin. “In 2020, at the request of the customer, some of the products were delivered even ahead of schedule. In addition, in the context of the lockdown in European countries, unprecedented efforts were made last year to fulfil contracts for the supply of our fuel for research reactors in the Czech Republic and Hungary.” ETRR-2, designed and supplied by Argentina’s INVAP, ??is used for scientific research in the field of particle physics, materials science, as well as for the production of radioisotopes.