Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: A cargo flight transported the first batch of VVER-1000 fuel assemblies from the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant in southwestern Siberia to India, Rosatom said in a statement on Thursday.A total of seven flights from Russia are planned to supply the entire reactor core and some reserve fuel. These shipments are provided under a contract signed in 2024, which includes fuel supply for the third and fourth VVER-1000 reactors of the Kudankulam plant for the entire service life, starting from initial loading.The Russian side said that since 2022, newer TVS-2M fuel had been introduced at India’s two operational VVER-1000 plants Kudankulam unit-1 and unit-2, which led to “improved performance” and longer 18-month operating cycles.According to Rosatom, the Kudankulam unit-3 and unit-4 will be the first VVER-1000 units to begin operation directly on an 18-month cycle.At the Kudankulam plant, there are two operational units and four more – units 3, 4, 5 and 6 – are under construction. All six will have VVER-1000 reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW.The first two reactors at Kudankulam were connected to India’s power grid in 2013 and 2016. During the operation of the first two reactors, Russian and Indian engineers had done considerable work to increase their efficiency through the introduction of advanced nuclear fuel and extended fuel cycles, Rosatom said.India has 21 reactor units in commercial operation with a total capacity of about 7.5 GW, providing just about 3.5% of the country’s electricity generation. Five large-scale reactors are under construction.
