Russia-India protocol signed for 2nd and 3rd phase construction of KNPP
Alexey Likhachev, Director General of the Rosatom State Corporation and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India visited the construction site of the Kudankulam NPP in India recently. During the visit, a protocol to the Russia-India intergovernmental agreement was signed on construction of power units at the second and third stages of the nuclear power project.
“India is our strategic partner. Russian-Indian nuclear cooperation lies deep in the first intergovernmental documents on the Indian NPP of Russian design that were signed back in the eighties of the last century. Our works continue in various areas of nuclear energy use and we are optimistic about the further development of our cooperation,” noted Alexey Likhachev.
Kudankulam NPP is India’s largest nuclear power plant and the flagship project of Russian-Indian technological and energy cooperation. It is being implemented in three stages. Kudankulam NPP construction involves the installation of six power units with VVER-1000 reactors with a total of 6,000 MW installed capacity. Power units 1 and 2 of the first stage were connected to the national grid of India in 2013 and 2016 and are operating above nominal capacity. Construction of units 3 and 4 of stage two, and units 5 and 6 of the third stages are underway. The supply of equipment for units 3 and 4 is being completed.
In addition to the construction of nuclear power units, Rosatom supplies reliable and efficient nuclear fuel for India’s VVER-1000 reactors. Extended fuel cycles have been introduced to increase the operating efficiency of these reactors.
The technical solutions implemented in Kudankulam design feature further evolutionary development of NPPs with VVER-reactor and transition to a new, safe, reliable, and feasible power unit. The Kudankulam NPP is the first to use a unified system for cooling the 4 unit’s condensers by hydraulic structures fed by one large-scale artificial water area. Units 3 and 4 for the first time used Open Top technology for the installation of equipment. The general designer and general contractor of the Kudankulam NPP is the Engineering Division of the Rosatom State Corporation of Russia.
