Russia’s Atomstroyexport, part of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has opened a credit line RUB10.5 billion ($160m) in Roseximbank JSC for the construction of the Kudankulam nuclear plant in India, according to Rosatom’s procurement website on 23 October.
The funds are attracted for five years at 5.456% a year with ASE acting as the general contractor. The 6000MWe Kudankulam project in Tamil Nadu will have six 1000MWe VVER-1000 units. Two are already operating (VVER-V-412s) with two more under construction (VVER V-491s) and two planned.
Construction of Kudankulam was first agreed in 1988 with the Soviet leadership, but the project was delayed. Work finally began in 2002 and an intergovernmental agreement was signed in 2008. Kudankulam 1 began operating in 2013 followed by Kudankulam 2 in 2014. In June 2017, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India issued a permit for pouring the first concrete for Kudankulam phase II (units 3 and 4) and subsequently a general framework agreement was signed for the construction of phase III (units 5 and 6).
Rosatom announced on 22 October that AEM Technology, a subsidiary of its power engineering unit Atomenergomash, had shipped a set of four assembled steam generators for Kudankulam 3. The generators, manufactured at the Volgodonsk branch of Rosatom's heavy machine-building subsidiary Atommash, are being transported overland to St Petersburg and from there by sea around Europe and through the Suez Canal to India, a distance of around 21,000 km.
The shipment is the first by Atommash to a country not part of the Commonwealth of Independent States, AEM technology director Rovshan Abbasov said. However, the company, which became part of Rosatom in 2012, is now also making reactors and steam generators for Turkey and Bangladesh, while contracts have been signed for equipment production for nuclear stations in Egypt, Finland, and Hungary.
To ensure effective cooperation in the production of the equipment for Kudankulam, Indian experts are permanently present at the Atommash site, AEM Technology said. Work is now underway on equipment for the Kudankulam 4, including four steam generators.