SverdNIIhimmash, part Atomenergomash (the Engineering Division of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom) on 9 August signed an agreement with Atomstroyexport (also part of Rosatom) for the development, manufacture and supply of equipment for the transport of solid radioactive waste (SRW) of for India’s Kudankulam NPP. Equipment for units 3 and 4 will be delivered in June 2021, and for units 5 and 6 in the summer of 2023. The equipment is intended for transportation of SRW to the place of storage and processing. The equipment will provide biological protection for staff during SRW overload and during waste collection and transportation. The delivery system includes a certification system that makes it possible to automatically control, classify, and perform other accounting and systematisation functions. The shipment will entail more than 50 delivery units of equipment.
Construction of Kudankulam NPP was first agreed in 1988 with the Soviet leadership, but the project was delayed. Work finally began in 2002 and an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and India 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).
