Taking a leaf from their succesful cooperation on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Russia is looking to set up 12 new nuclear power units in India in the coming two decades. This was revealed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia.
Prime Minister Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the country’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and gave a joint statement at the 20th Annual Summit between the two countries.
Prime Minister Modi said that India and Russia are developing a “true partnership” in the field of nuclear energy. “Due to the increasing localisation of nuclear plants being formed with the cooperation of Russia in India, we are also developing a true partnership in this field,” he said. President Putin termed the Kudankualm Nuclear Power Plant as the flagahip project and added that “the first two units are already operational. Work for the third and fourth units are going as per schedule.”
Addressing a press conference after the meeting Putin said: “Under the existing agreements, at least 12 Russian-designed power units will be built over the course of 20 years.” The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, powered by VVER-1000, is the only successful example of nuclear cooperation with a foreign partner.
The two sides are reported to have engaged in discussion about the site for second nuclear power plant with Russian designed VVER 1200 reactors that could pave way greater involvement of Indian Nuclear industry and localisation.
There have been reports that the Indian government will allot a new site at Kavali in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh for Russia to build another atomic power project six Russian VVER-1200 reactors with each having a generation capacity of 1200 MWe.
The two sides also expressed satisfaction at the successful cooperation in the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh and expressed their readiness to expand similar cooperation in third countries.
