NEW DELHI: The VVER-1000 reactor vessel for the sixth unit of the Tamil Nadu-based Kudankulam nuclear power plant (KNPP), which is being built in India according to a Russian design, is being transported to the construction site. The equipment weighing 320 tonnes was manufactured at Atommash plant, the Russian atomic energy corporation Rosatom’s machine-building division, and shipped to the customer.
A reactor vessel is a thick steel container that holds nuclear fuel in a nuclear reactor. It’s also known as a reactor pressure vessel.
Before sending the reactor vessel on a sea voyage, the equipment was delivered by a special automobile transport to the plant pier, where it was loaded onto a river vessel, the destination of which was the sea port of Novorossiysk. Then, in the port, the reactor vessel was placed in the hold of a sea vessel to cover a 11,000-km route to India.
A set of four steam generators for the sixth unit of the Kudankulam N-plant will be shipped in 2025.
At present, four new power units are being built at the Kudankulam NPP according to the Russian design. The design of the station, construction and supply of equipment are carried out by divisions of the engineering division of Rosatom State Corporation. Contracts for the design and supply of equipment were concluded between JSC Atomstroyexport and ICAEL (Atomic Energy Corporation of India).
“We are developing and making our work more perfect both in terms of equipment design, ensuring an unprecedented level of safety, and in terms of the economic efficiency of our products. We are currently developing a reactor installation for nuclear power plants with increased power characteristics, more modern operational properties, and improved technical and economic indicators for use in Russia and abroad,” noted Valery Kryzhanovsky, general designer of OKB Gidropress.
KKNPP is scheduled to have six VVER-1000 reactors built in collaboration with Atomstroyexport, the Russian state company and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), with an installed capacity of 6,000 MW of electricity.
The first reactor of the plant attained criticality in July 2013 and was connected to the grid three months later. It started commercial operation from Dec 31, 2014. The second unit achieved criticality on July 10, 2016 and was connected to the grid in Aug.
Construction of units 3 and 4 with similar VVER-1000 power units began in 2017. Units 3 and 4 are 73% complete. They have a cost overrun of nearly 73% and a time overrun of 72 months, according to a project summary released in August 2024 by the Union govt. Units 5 and 6 are almost a third complete and have not run into any cost or time overruns, according to the project summary.
