Shipped reactor vessel for Kudankulam nuclear plant, says Russia’s Rosatom

The Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu, which will have six reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW, is the largest nuclear power plant in India

Published on: Jan 13, 2025, 20:37:51 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: Russia’s state-run atomic agency said on Monday that it has shipped the reactor vessel for the sixth power unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant to India.

Russia’s nuclear agency said the reactor vessel for the sixth power unit at the Kudankulam plant is being transported to the construction site from the seaport of Novorossiysk (REUTERS FILE PHOTO)

The Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu, which will have six reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW, is the largest nuclear power plant in India and the flagship project of Russian-Indian energy cooperation. The production cycle for making a reactor vessel is two years.

Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom said the reactor vessel for the sixth power unit at the Kudankulam plant is being transported to the construction site from the seaport of Novorossiysk. The equipment, weighing 320 tonnes and manufactured by Atommash, Rosatom’s machine-building division, was shipped at the end of 2024.

The “reactor vessel was placed in the hold of a sea vessel for the 6,000-mile journey to India”, Rosatom said in a statement.

“A set of four steam generators for the sixth unit of the Kudankulam NPP in India will be shipped in 2025,” the statement said.

Four power units are currently being built at the Kudankulam site. The first two units were connected to India’s national grid in 2013 and 2016 and currently supply electricity to the country’s southern region.

Construction and installation work on the third and fourth units is nearing completion, and construction of the fifth and sixth power units has begun. Rosatom will provide fuel to the power units of the Kudankulam plant throughout their entire life cycle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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