India, Russia to build five more nuclear reactors

KUDANKULAM: Five more nuclear reactors, which would generate 1,000 MW each, are being planned at the existing Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he dedicated the first unit of the mega power plant here along with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Doing the honours through video conferencing in New Delhi and Moscow respectively, Mr Modi and Mr Putin termed the nuclear plant as a “fine example of special and privileged Indo-Russian strategic partnership”.

“And, it is only a start of our collaboration in this field.  It is perhaps not commonly known that at 1,000 Mega Watt, Kundankulum 1 is the largest single unit of electrical power in India. In years ahead, we are determined to pursue an ambitious agenda of nuclear power generation. At Kudankulum alone, five more units of 1,000 MW each are planned.  We plan to build a series of bigger nuclear power units,” the Prime Minister said in his address.

Mr Putin said the unit has been built using most advanced Russian technology incorporating highest safety standards while Modi asserted that India was determined to pursue an ambitious agenda of nuclear power generation.

The Kudankulam 1 has been jointly built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Russia's Rosatom and it had started generating electricity in 2013. Anti-nuclear activists and local people had protested against the project claiming it was unsafe. The agreement for the project was inked by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988 but actual work on the ground started only in 1997. The KNPP uses Russian VVER type reactors based on enriched uranium and its second unit was expected to start later this year.