29.04.2008 // Press service of Atomstroyexport CJSC

20th meeting of the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Construction of Kudankulam NPP took place in Mumbai on Apr 25–26 2008

The Russian side was represented by the co-chairman of the Committee, the vice director general of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation I.Kamenskikh, the president of Atomstroyexport CSJC S.Shmatko, representatives of Atomstroyexport and the general designer of the project, Atomenergoproekt (Moscow).

The Indian side was represented by the president and the chief managing director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India S.K.Jain, the chief advisor of the Department of Atomic Energy of India V.P.Raja and a number of Indian specialists.

Shmatko pointed out that the period since the previous, 19th, meeting had been very intensive: particularly, the Russian side had delivered the 39th and 40th lots of equipment and materials. The Indian side made a number of proposals on how to intensify the work under the project.

The sides thoroughly analyzed the work done so far and outlined their next steps: the Indian side should intensify installation and start-up activities all over the construction site while the Russian site should guarantee the supply of the remaining equipment and materials in accordance with the schedule.

The Committee adopted a protocol and a number of documents aimed at the successful implementation of the project.

The Committee meets once in three months to consider current problems and to set specific tasks.

Note

The first stone of the 1st unit of Kudankulam (Tirunelveli, state of Tamilnadu) was laid Mar 31 2002. The 1st unit is to be launched in late 2008, the 2nd one — in 2009. A total of $2.6bln will be invested in the project. The Russian Government has provided India with a long-term credit, which covers almost half of the cost.

Kudankulam NPP, which is being built on the basis of modern Russian technologies, is an example of Russian-Indian fruitful cooperation and paves the way for its further development. Presently, the Russian side is installing a third generation reactor at Kudankulam (NPP-92 project). This reactor meets all  international requirements.

The NPP-92 project was drafted by Atomenergoproject (Moscow), in cooperation with Kurchatov Institute, HydroPress RDB and other leading Russian enterprises. This is very promising and safe project.

The Kudankulan units have special devices that intercept, cool and localize core melt in case of an accident — a kind of «concrete trap» situated under the reactor.

Besides, the units are protected from possible earthquakes, hurricanes, air crashes. The two existing units, located on the Indian Ocean coast, have already survived a tsunami — the wave was stopped by a special wave cutter.

The key advantage of this project is that it uses upgraded equipment, effective protection mechanisms and passive safety systems combined with traditional active ones. This all makes Kudankulam very safe and efficient.

The 1st and 2nd units of Kudankulam are being build by Atomstroyexport, a company building NPPs in China and Iran and starting a similar project at Belene NPP in Bulgaria.

A total of 100 Russian companies and organizations are involved in the Kudankulam project. The Russian side is to draft documentation, supply equipment and materials, control the construction and equipping process, train Indian operators at Russian enterprises and NPP.

Atomstroyexport CJSC is the leading Russian organization implementing contracts for the construction of nuclear power plants abroad. After the launch of Tianwan NPP in China, the company continues building Kudankulam NPP in India, Bushehr NPP in Iran and Belene NPP in Bulgaria.