Heads of Rosatom and India's Department of Atomic Energy discussed prospects for co-operation at the Kudankulam NPP construction site
2024-02-10 16:00
Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India, visited the construction site of the Kudankulam NPP in India (general designer and general contractor - engineering division of ROSATOM).
During the two-day visit, the delegation examined the power units of the second and third stages of the Kudankulam NPP under construction and discussed the prospective agenda of co-operation. The negotiations resulted in the signing of an important document for the joint Russian-Indian project - a protocol to the 2008 intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the second and third stage power units of the Kudankulam NPP.
“India is our strategic partner. Russian-Indian co-operation in the nuclear sector has deep roots; the first intergovernmental documents on an Indian NPP of Russian design were signed back in the eighties of the last century. At the end of last year, we celebrated a remarkable joint anniversary - ten years since the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP was connected to the power grid of the Republic of India. We continue to work on joint projects in various areas of nuclear energy use and are optimistic about further expansion of co-operation,” said Alexey Likhachev.
Kudankulam NPP is India's largest nuclear power plant and a flagship project of Russian-Indian technological and energy cooperation. The NPP is located in the south of India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The customer and operator of the plant is the Indian Atomic Energy Corporation (ICAEL). The general contractor is JSC Atomstroyexport, the general designer is JSC Atomenergoproekt, and the general designer is OKB Gidropress. The construction of Kudankulam NPP involves the construction of six power units with VVER-1000 type reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW. Power Units 1 and 2 were connected to India's national grid in 2013 and 2016 and are operating at above-nominal capacity. Currently, construction and installation works and finalisation of equipment deliveries at Units 3 and 4 are underway and two units of the third phase are under construction. In addition to the construction of nuclear power units, Rosatom is also supplying India with reliable and efficient nuclear fuel for VVER-1000, while improving the operating efficiency of these reactors through the introduction of extended fuel cycles.
Technical solutions implemented in the Kudankulam NPP project characterise the ways of further evolutionary development of NPP power units with VVER-type reactor and transition to creation of a qualitatively new, safe, reliable and economical power unit. At Kudankulam NPP, for the first time the project of a unified system of cooling the condensers of four units by hydraulic structures fed by one large-scale artificially created water area is used. For the first time, the reactor plant equipment at Units 3 and 4 was assembled from a fully arranged and equipped site for the application of Open Top technology. The new power units of the Kudankulam NPP meet the latest IAEA safety requirements.