During the meetings the parties signed a supplement to the Master Framework Agreement (MFA) for units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam NPP. The document was signed by head of NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) K.C. Purohit and head of NIAEP-ASE joint engineering company, Valery Limarenko. The supplement puts in action the MFA for the construction of two new units at the Indian nuclear power plant.
Within the MFA they signed a Contract for production of Russian long-cycle equipment and its supply for power units 3 and 4. An agreement of putting this contract in action was also signed.
“Currently all protocol formalities for the Russian-based construction project irreversible launch are accomplished. I’m glad to notice that the project implementation for units 3 and 4 of the nuclear station thus are put into practical phase”, – said Valery Limarenko.
Strategic cooperation
“According to our schedule, the concrete pouring will start as early as in the beginning of 2016. Now there are preparation works going on, an equipment order was sent to Russian enterprises”, – says Sergey Kiriyenko, ROSATOM’s Director General.
The scheme of project funding is traditional, which is with the help of Russian state credit, while construction works and Indian-produced equipment will be paid by New Delhi. The head of ROSATOM added that the agreement of exchanging confidential scientific information in the sphere of nuclear energy will also be signed: “We cooperate in research reactors, new generation reactors, including those using thorium as fuel, look through possibilities of uranium extraction and enrichment. Today it is safe to say that the Russian-Indian partnership is absolutely strategic”.
Big plans
The day before the Russian delegation’s visit to New Delhi Vladimir Putin gave an interview to PTI, where he said, that: ”besides new NPP units of Kudankulam we are expecting the decision of Indian government about allotting an area for building more Russian project NPPs. We are able to build up to 25 power units in India”.
“Russia had big plans for Indian market, indeed”- says Sergey Kondratiev, head of Department of Economics of the Institute of Energy and Finance fund. – As early as two years ago we made a frame agreement about possibility of Russia building up to 28 power units, so today’s contract on the whole corresponds with the strategy of Russian production’s expansion to India.
May we remind our readers that the construction of two power units of the Kudankulam NPP with total capacity of 2000 MW started back in 2002. The plant was the first station built applying post-Fukushima standards. The first unit was planned to be launched in the end of 2011, however, due to the protests of the Tamil-Nadu State inhabitants, it was connected to the mains only in 2013. The second unit is currently under hot operational testing, its launching is expected in spring 2015.
