Russia, India sign deal to build 2 more generating units for nuclear plant
DELHI. March 12 (Interfax) - Russia and India have signed an agreement to build the third and fourth generating units for the nuclear power plant that is under construction in Kudankulam, India, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters.
The agreement was signed during a current visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to India.
Ivanov said the agreement stipulated building a total of up to 16 generating units on three sites in India.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian nuclear industry regulator Rosatom, told reporters that 12 of them, including the first two units at Kudankulam, are to be built under a "road map" signed on Friday.
India is also offering Russia a site in Haripur, West Bengal, for another six units. In 2012-2017, four more units would be put up at Kudankulam, which lies in India's southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, and two units on another site.
"There remain another four on the Haripur site, which will apparently go into [India's] 13th five-year plan [starting after 2017]," Kiriyenko said.
There has been no information on the potential third site for a nuclear power plant.
Ivanov, in speaking about the construction of the third and fourth units at Kudankulam, added that about 30% of financial allocations for those units would go to Indian companies, primarily construction firms, about 25% to all leading manufacturers of equipment for the nuclear industry, and about 50% to Russia.
Russian company Atomstroiexport is finishing the construction of the first two units for Kudankulam, each of which will have a capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts. Rosatom expects that that one of them will be put in operation in 2010 and the other in 2011.
It is expected that altogether six units will be built at that plant.