New Delhi: In a major boost to India’s nuclear power sector, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced on Friday that his country is building India’s largest nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu’s Kudankulam.
Putin made the remarks at the joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi during his two-day state visit to India. On Thursday, Russia’s state-run nuclear corporation delivered the first consignment of fuel for the third reactor at the power plant, as reported by WION.
“We are conducting a flagship project to build India’s largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam. Two of the six reactor units are already connected to the grid, while four more are under construction. Bringing this plant to full capacity will make an impressive contribution to India’s energy needs, providing cheap and clean power for industries and households,” Putin said.
“We can also discuss small modular reactors, floating nuclear plants, and non-energy uses of nuclear technology, including in medicine and agriculture. We are working with our Indian partners to build new international transport and logistics routes, including the International North-South Transport Corridor from Russia and Belarus to the Indian Ocean. There are major opportunities for bilateral trade with the expansion of this corridor, including its key link -the Northern Sea Route,” the Russian leader said.
The fuel assemblies manufactured by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant were delivered by a cargo flight operated by the Nuclear Fuel Division of Rosatom, the firm said on Thursday, WION has quoted the company as saying.
The mega-plant in Kudankulam will have six VVER-1000 reactors with a total power capacity of 6,000 MW. The first two reactors at the plant were connected to the power grid of the country in 2013 and 2016. The other four reactors are currently under construction.
Rosatom has said that during the operations of the first two reactors as part of the first phase of the project, Russian and Indian engineers have collaborated to increase efficiency with advanced nuclear fuel and extended fuel cycles.
