MOSCOW/NEW DELHI, December 2. /TASS/. Russia expects to work with India on nuclear projects and efforts to develop the Southeast Asian country’s peaceful nuclear industry to continue, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a news briefing for Indian media ahead of a Russia-India summit in New Delhi.
"We have been taking an active part in the building of India’s peaceful nuclear industry, and the famous Kudankulam [NPP]. Hopefully, this project will be continued. It certainly creates a separate industry in India," Peskov said.
According to him, Russia has been involved in training personnel for nuclear power plants and it shares technology for peaceful nuclear power facilities with India, cooperation that he called "mutually advantageous indeed."
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant (NPP), the largest nuclear power plant in the country and the flagship project between Russia and India in technological and energy cooperation, is up and running. The NPP is located in southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The operator of the plant is the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. The Kudankulam NPP uses six power units with VVER-1000 reactors with an aggregate capacity of 6,000 MW. Power units No. 1 and No. 2 were commissioned in 2013 and 2016, operating at the nominal capacity level to supply electricity to southern India.
Assembly work is currently nearing completion at power units No. 3 and No. 4, and the construction of two third-stage units, No. 5 and No.6, has been launched. Russia’s state-owned nuclear power corporation Rosatom has contracted to supply fuel to power units at the Kudankulam NPP throughout their lifecycle.