GLOBAL USE OF SIEMENS FUEL-ELEMENT TECHNO LOGY

Thinking and acting global is not new to Siemens. In the very infancy of the reactor industry in the sixties, Siemens absorbed the then stat e-of-the-art technology from the United States and Canada and independ ently developed it further to a high safety standard. Within a short p eriod of time, Siemens/KWU became a successful vendor of boiling water reactors (BWR), pressurized water reactors (PWR), and heavy water rea ctors of the Atucha type, all with the associated fuel elements. After several nuclear power plants had been completed in Germany, the first nuclear power plants by Siemens were commissioned abroad in the early seventies, and Siemens/KWU fuel elements were delivered for foreign l ight water reactors built by other vendors. Recycling of Pu in mixed o xide (Mox) fuel elements was started in cooperation with German operat ors in 1966 (BWR) and 1972 (PWR), respectively. Cooperative ventures a nd technology transfer schemes supplemented the worldwide activities.