The Indo-Russian Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear facility in India. Of its six VVER-1000 type reactors, units 1 and 2 were connected to India's national power grid in 2013 and 2016 respectively
Friday, November 21, 2025
By John Dyer
The Indo-Russian Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear facility in India. Of its six VVER-1000 type reactors, units 1 and 2 were connected to India's national power grid in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
The third unit of the six-unit Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is undergoing pre-commissioning activities. Preparations are underway for one of the key milestones- testing of safety systems on an open reactor, said the Russian Nuclear power agency Rosatom. Meanwhile, construction and installation work and equipment deliveries continue at Unit 4. Unit 5 and 6 remain actively under construction.
The Indo-Russian Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear facility in India. Of its six VVER-1000 type reactors, units 1 and 2 were connected to India's national power grid in 2013 and 2016 respectively, and currently supply electricity to the southern regions of the country.
A working meeting took place in Mumbai, India, between Alexey Likhachev, Director General, Rosatom State Corporation and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of India's Department of Atomic Energy. The talks focussed on furthering bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, such as development of projects for both large and small-scale nuclear power plants and cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle.
Particular attention was given to opportunities for localizing equipment production in India, said Rosatom. Notably, one of the key areas remains the serial construction of high-capacity nuclear power units of Russian design in India, based on the VVER-1200 technology.
"India has set itself an ambitious goal of increasing its nuclear generation capacity to 100 GigaWatt, and Rosatom is ready to contribute by offering efficient technologies that have proven their reliability both in Russia and abroad," said Alexey Likhachev, Director General, Rosatom State Corporation.
Relevant organizations are currently developing technical specifications for a new nuclear power plant in India featuring VVER-1200 reactor units. VVER-1200 reactors generate 1200Megawatts of power, and are the upgraded versions of the type VVER-1000 that is operational in Kudankulam.
New areas of cooperation are also under discussion, including the construction of small modular reactors (SMRs) of Russian design in India. SMR technologies are aimed at supplying clean electricity to remote regions with limited grid infrastructure, as well as to individual industrial enterprises.
WION