Russia's Second Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Plant Officially Commissioned, Uranium Conversion Capacity Expected to Double

The depleted uranium processing facility at the Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant in Krasnoyarsk Krai has been officially commissioned recently. According to a statement by Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, the commissioning of this new facility has doubled Russia's capacity for depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUHF) processing. This is also the second such DUHF processing plant built in Russia, with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes, while the first plant of the same type previously operating at the same site had already been commissioned earlier.

In his statement, Likhachev said that the commissioning of the new depleted uranium hexafluoride processing facility is a momentous event for the Electrochemical Plant, Rosatom's fuel division, and the entire Russian nuclear industry. The technology he referred to will help double Russia's depleted uranium conversion capacity to 20,000 tonnes per year, while ensuring the conversion of depleted uranium into a chemically safe form for safe storage without any risk to the ecological environment.

With the continuous development of fourth-generation nuclear technology, Likhachev further pointed out that depleted uranium is no longer waste, but a strategic energy resource for the future. This judgment reflects the profound transformation underway in Russia's nuclear industry in terms of resource utilization and recycling, as the rightful role of depleted uranium is being re-examined and developed.

Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL, the managing company of Rosatom's fuel division, announced at the commissioning ceremony of the facility that depleted uranium obtained through the defluorination process will be used to produce mixed oxide (MOX) and mixed nitride uranium-plutonium (MNUP) fuel for nuclear reactors. She stated that given continuously growing global demand, high uranium prices, and Russia's possession of next-generation technologies, any uranium, regardless of its uranium-235 isotope content, is of great value to industry.

Nikipelova emphasized that Russia's centrifuges can efficiently re-enrich depleted uranium hexafluoride, while its fast reactor technology allows the use of secondary nuclear materials such as plutonium and depleted uranium in nuclear fuel. Through defluorination of depleted uranium hexafluoride, Russia has achieved not only closed-loop recycling of uranium but also closed-loop recycling of fluorine, and the recovered fluorine can be reused in the conversion process, thereby forming a complete recycling chain.

The fluorine-containing products generated during this processing, including hydrofluoric acid and anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, are also sold on the market as certified chemicals. These products are supplied both to Rosatom's subsidiary plants and to companies in the chemical, metallurgical, and oil and gas industries, demonstrating market potential for multi-sector applications.

Regarding TVEL, as the managing company of Rosatom's fuel division, TVEL JSC possesses complete facilities for nuclear fuel fabrication, uranium conversion and enrichment, gas centrifuge production, and research and development institutions. As the sole nuclear fuel supplier for Russian nuclear power plants, TVEL continuously supplies fuel to more than 70 power reactors in as many as 15 countries, research reactors in 9 countries, and transport reactors of Russian nuclear power plants, making it an important enterprise whose fuel is selected for one out of every six power reactors worldwide.