Kudankulam 2nd reactor to achieve criticality June 25, paperwork for stage 3 under approval
MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - The second generating unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in India is scheduled to achieve criticality, the minimum power output level, on June 25, presidential aide Yury Ushakov told journalists.
Paperwork for the construction of the third stage of the plant is under approval, he said.
"The biggest joint project in the power industry is the construction, with Russian help, of the Kudankulam NPP. The first unit is working at full capacity, and the second is at the launch stage, with criticality planned for June 25. Preparations are under way to build the second stage of the NPP [third and fourth reactors] and the paperwork for phase three [fifth and sixth units] is under approval," Ushakov said.
Contracts for construction of the power units Nos. 5-6 at the Kudankulam plant could be signed in 2016, Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said in an interview with Russia's NTV in June.
"The launch of the second unit [at KNPP] is underway, we launched the first one two years ago. We already signed contracts for the third and fourth [power units]. Most likely, we will sign [contracts] for the fifth and sixth ones by the end of this year. We also signed an agreement for two more sites on which units will be built," he said.
It was thought earlier that an agreement would be signed in Q1 2016.
The Kudankulam plant is being built in India under a bilateral agreement of November 20, 1988 and supplements to it signed on June 21, 1998. Construction of the first two VVER-1000 reactors with 2,000 megawatts of combined capacity began in 2002 under the supervision of Atomstroyexport.
In April 2014, Russia and India signed a general framework agreement on the construction of the second stage of KNPP, which includes the third and fourth generating units.
A road map for cooperation in nuclear power between Russia and India provides for construction of 12 units in India, including four to eight power-generating units at Kudankulam. In addition, an agreement was reached on India allocating yet another site for an NPP of Russian design.