The VVER-1000 reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for unit 6 of India’s Kudankulam NPP in the southern state of Tamil Nadu which is being built with Russian assistance, is being transported to the construction site from the Atommash plant, the Volgodonsk branch of AEM-Technologies (part of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division Atomenergomash).
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 the National Power Company of India Ltd (NPCIL), the general contractor is JSC ASE JSC (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. Work on units 5&6 began in 2021 and the NPP is expected to be operating at full capacity by 2027. The roadmap for nuclear cooperation between Russia and India provides for the construction of a total 12 units in India, including 4-8 at Kudankulam.
The 320 tonne RPV was delivered by special road to the factory pier, where it was loaded onto a river vessel for transport to the seaport of Novorossiysk. It was then transferred to a sea vessel for the 11,000 km journey to India.
