Russia's state nuclear fuel corporation TVEL will supply low-enriched nuclear fuel to a research reactor in Vietnam, the company said in a press release on Friday.

A corresponding contract between TVEL, the U.S. Energy Department and the Vietnamese nuclear research center Dalat was signed on Thursday.

The low enriched uranium fuel VVR-M2 (less than 20 percent enrichment with uranium 235) will be delivered under the Russian-U. S. program of transferring research reactors to lowly enriched fuel.

The fuel will replace 36 percent enrichment fuel it uses at the moment. A total of 36 fuel assemblies are to be supplied to the research facility. The new low enriched fuel will make the reactor safer in operation.

Previous deliveries of the program were made in 2005 to the research reactors of the Czech Technical University and Nuclear Research Center Tajoura (TREWDRC) in Libya.

The VVR-M2 low enriched fuel for the Dalat reactor will be fabricated at TVEL's Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant.

Source: Xinhua