Аннотация:This paper contains short description of the VVER-440 fuel rod design and fabrication technology improvements, which were introduced during the last 18 years. A comparison of typically achieved burnup for VVER-440 fuel and PWR type fuel is provided and operational experience with the WER-440 type fuel, irradiated beyond its burnup design limit, is summarized. Second part of this paper contains results of the fuel rod thermomechanical behaviour parametric calculation, performed by the computer code PIN for the fuel rod, which spent four years in the 3rd Unit of the Kolskaya NPP.