Removal of the rods is scheduled for mid-October, he said. The rods were damaged in April 2003 when they overheated in a cleaning tank adjacent to the reactor. The incident was blamed on the tank’s manufacturers, French-German company Framatome-ANP, which agreed to pay compensation.
TVEL of Russia was picked to clean up the damaged rods and cleaning tank at a reported cost of $4.5 million. The removal of the rods – 30 bundles of 129 rods apiece, weighing a combined 3.6 tons – is expected to take two months, National Nuclear Energy Office director Iván Lux told daily Magyar Hírlap early in September.