India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has issued permission for major equipment installation to begin at units 5&6 of the Kudankula NPP in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. This allows the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to undertake installation of major equipment, including reactor pressure vessels, steam generators, coolant pumps etc.
This permission was issued after satisfactory completion of a multi-tier safety review of design of the units with respect to the safety requirements specified by AERB as well as assessment of the progress to date of civil construction activities under permission issued in April 2021 for ‘First Pour of Concrete’ (FPC). AERB said the Kudankulam units incorporate many advanced safety features “as per the requirements specified by AERB in its Safety Code on Design of Light Water Reactor based NPPs, which is in-line with safety requirements in the latest IAEA safety standards”.
Kudankulam NPP will comprise six units with VVER-1000 reactors. Work began following an intergovernmental agreement between India and Russia signed in 1988. Units 1&2 (Phase I) are already in operation and work is underway to build units 3-6 (Phases II and III). The customer and operator of the station is NPCIL, the general contractor is JSC ASE (Rosatom’s Engineering Division), general designer Atomenergoproject and equipment designer OKB Gidropress.
Units 1&2 began operation in 2016. The general framework agreement with Rosatom on the construction units 3&4 was signed in 2014 and, in 2017, the engineering division of Rosatom and NPCIL signed an agreement on the construction units 5&6. Units 3&4 are in an advanced stage of construction. Work on units 5&6 began in 2021. Fuel for unit 3 was delivered by Russia’s TVEL in December 2025.
NPCIL said on X: “The approval followed from comprehensive multi-tier safety reviews by AERB, reaffirming adherence to stringent national regulations and global benchmarks, including IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) standards.”
