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Russia’s Rosatom offers advanced reactors to support India’s 100 GW nuclear goal
Russia’s Rosatom has offered India modern nuclear solutions, including large-capacity power units and small modular reactors, amid India’s 100 GW nuclear target.
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Russia’s state-run nuclear energy corporation Rosatom on Friday offered modern nuclear solutions ranging from large-capacity power units to small modular reactors to India at a trade fair aimed at creating new business opportunities.
Rosatom is among the key Russian entities participating in the Innoprom.India international industrial exhibition being held on the margins of the Brics Summit in New Delhi. Rosatom is currently the only foreign organisation engaged in building nuclear reactors in India at the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu.
Among the products offered by Rosatom is the VVER-1200 reactor, which is more advanced than the VVER-1000 reactors used at the Kudankulam plant. During a tour of the trade fair, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and Russia’s industry and trade minister Anton Alikhanov were briefed on Russia-India cooperation in nuclear and related technologies by Kirill Komarov, Rosatom’s first deputy director general for international business.
“Considering the scale of India’s target, we are ready to offer our partners a wide range of modern nuclear solutions, from large-capacity power units to small modular reactors,” Komarov said.
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“At the same time, our partnership extends far beyond nuclear energy and covers nuclear medicine, additive technologies, composite materials and logistics. I am confident that Russian technologies will contribute to strengthening India’s technological sovereignty.”
In the context of technological sovereignty, Komarov outlined prospects for cooperation in additive technologies, composite materials, digital solutions and logistics.
Komarov noted that India has set an ambitious target of increasing nuclear capacity to 100 GW by 2047 and said Rosatom is already making a practical contribution towards achieving this goal. “We are the only foreign company constructing a nuclear power plant in India. Two units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant are operating reliably, while four more are at various stages of implementation,” he said.
Komarov also participated in the Brics Business Forum’s business programme, speaking in the main plenary session with the theme of “Strengthening the Russia-India trade and industrial partnership: Towards self-sufficient cooperation” and at the joint session with the Confederation of Indian Industry, “India-Russia: Business Cooperation, Strategic Partnerships and New Opportunities.”
During the Russia-India Business Dialogue, Goyal emphasised the need to move from agreements to practical industrial cooperation and encouraged Russian companies to develop manufacturing operations in India by leveraging the country’s industrial capabilities, skilled workforce and opportunities under the Make in India initiative.
Representatives of Rosatom’s industry integrator for additive technologies participated in a session on “Additive Manufacturing: A new vector for Russia-India partnership” and discussed opportunities to jointly develop an ecosystem for the additive manufacturing industry.
Rosatom representatives explained how additive technologies can reduce equipment costs for end users by 40% and presented real-world examples of equipment localisation, as well as the initial results of similar projects at an Indian partner’s manufacturing facility. They shared experience on how the value chain can be developed jointly, from the supply and establishment of turnkey additive technology centres to technology transfer and equipment localisation.
Rosatom MetalTech LLC, an enterprise of Rosatom’s Fuel Division, held a session on “Critical Minerals and Materials: New opportunities for industrial cooperation” where participants discussed industrial cooperation in the production of rare earth magnets, building consolidated demand for rare earth products, government support measures and investments for developing new production capacities.
During a roundtable on “Russia-India: Cooperation in the steel industry”, Rosatom’s metallurgy businesses presented four product areas for cooperation with Indian partners – titanium, zirconium, hafnium and calcium.
On the sidelines of the exhibition, JET Engineering and Technical Centre, part of Rosatom Service JSC within Rosatom’s Electric Power Division, signed a distribution agreement with India’s Syngient Technologies for the Repeat Vision software platform, a next-generation platform for end-to-end engineering and modelling of complex industrial systems.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed with Indian company EM Services for cooperation in the energy sector, including the digitalisation of power plants and the maintenance, reconstruction and modernisation of energy facilities.
Giredmet Institute, part of the Chemical and Technology Cluster of Rosatom’s Science Division, and Indian company Alt Metals signed a contract to develop a pilot titanium sponge production facility.
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is the flagship project of Russia-India cooperation in the nuclear sector. The Kudankulam project is being implemented under an inter-governmental agreement signed in November 1988. Units 1 and 2 of the plant were connected to India’s national power grid in 2013 and 2016, and four more reactors are in different stages of construction.
