OREANDA-NEWS. On August 11, 2009 a group of Indian and Russian experts met at the construction site of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India to discuss the work to be done to complete the construction of the first two reactors of the plant, reported the press-centre of Minatom. 

Kudankulam NPP is being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport (Russia) on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

Chairman of NPCIL S.K. Jain told journalists that they focused on the preparations for the start-up program. The parties expect the plant to be fueled in early 2010. In mid 2008 Russia already supplied necessary fuel for the 1st unit. The fuel is being stored in a special facility at the construction site. The fuel assemblies for the 2nd unit will be shipped shortly.

Jain said that the Kudankulam project had become a real school for Indian nuclear power engineers and constructors. The knowledge and experience acquired during the project will help them to effectively build similar reactors in the future and to substantially reduce their further costs due to domestic production of necessary equipment.

Russia and India have agreed to build four more reactors at Kudankulam and to cooperate at other sites in India. Jain said that they were already negotiating the purchase of more reactors.

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.