Rosatom State Corporation on Tuesday said that it began pouring the first concrete for the construction of power unit N5 at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India. Due to anti-epidemiological restrictions, the ceremony was held in videoconference mode, the engineering division – ASE group said.
“Rosatom has all the most advanced nuclear power technologies… we are ready to launch the serial construction of the state-of-the-art Generation III+ Russian-designed nuclear power units at a new site in India. It is stipulated by the existing agreements,” said Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev.
The Kudankulam NPP is being built in India under the framework of a bilateral agreement dated November 20, 1988, and an amendment to it dated June 21, 1998. In 2002, construction began on the first two power units with VVER-1000 reactors with a total capacity of 2000 MW.
Russian enterprises are already manufacturing equipment required for the first priority installation. It includes the equipment for the reactor facilities and the turbine hall for Unit 5, says the release. “Even today, on the construction horizon of up to two years, construction is provided with the detailed design documentation,” said the company release.
The roadmap for cooperation in nuclear energy between Russia and India provides for the construction of a total of 12 power units in India, including at the Kudankulam site – from 4 to 8 power units. In addition, an agreement was reached on the allocation by India of another site for a Russian-designed nuclear power plant.
Russia has already built blocks NN1-2 of the Kudankulam NPP. In June 2017, the Indian Atomic Energy Regulation Board (AERB) issued a permit for pouring the first concrete of the II stage, including the NN3-4 power units of the Kudankulam NPP, the general agreement on the construction of which was concluded in April 2014. The planned date of the start of guaranteed operation of power units NN3-4 – 2023 and 2024. During SPIEF-2017, a general framework agreement was signed for the construction of the third stage (blocks NN5-6) of the Kudankulam NPP.