A Wilmington-based GE joint venture has introduced its next-general nuclear fuel design, the company announced Wednesday.

The announcement was timed to coincide with the annual Nuclear Energy Assembly Conference, held this year in Washington, D.C., GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy spokesman Jon Allen said Wednesday.

Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF), a joint venture of GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, unveiled a new fuel rod assembly design that “will provide customers with improved fuel economics, increased performance and flexibility in operation,” GNF’s news release stated.

The assemblies, which will be manufactured at GE Hitachi’s plant in Castle Hayne, are available in limited quantities now. In January, four were loaded into a reactor in Louisiana and another four into a plant in Illinois. They are currently in use.

Like GNF’s predecessor assemblies, the new GNF3 is a bundle of fuel rods, but its leaner operation means greater efficiencies for customers, Allen said. The GNF3’s advanced features and design “seek to lower reload costs by requiring fewer bundles in the reactor, less uranium and lower enrichment costs,” he added.

“Certainly, this product introduction demonstrates to our industry that we’re continuing to invest and to enhance products we offer to customers,” Allen said. “We believe this new design will save customers money due to the efficiencies it offers.”

While the GNF customers who benefit from the new assembly are nowhere near the Cape Fear area, the people who designed it are local.

“Some of the best minds in the nuclear industry live and work in Wilmington,” Allen said. “This design will be used for many years to come.”