Chennai, (Samajweekly) Global nuclear power major Russia’s Rosatom on Friday said the ship with equipment for two 1,000 MW atomic power plants coming up in Tamil Nadu has left the Saint Petersburg port for India.
According to Rosatom, this is the 17th shipload during the project implementation and the first one – after the restrictive measures related to prevention of further spread of COVID-19.
India’s atomic power company Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is building two more 1,000 MW reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district with Russian equipment. The first two reactors of similar capacities are generating power.
“In the context of the restrictions imposed in Russia and India, Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division, the Indian customer, Russian manufacturers, the port of Saint-Petersburg have kept on working, meeting all the measures prescribed, on the construction of the second phase of Kudankulam NPP (nuclear power plant),” the Director for projects in India, Vladimir Angelov, said.
“It is necessary to make a specific mention on the well-coordinated work of the employees responsible for the cargo handling and execution. The deadline for shipment was reduced by 37 per cent,” he added.
The shipment includes air locks of the passive heat removal system for power unit No 3, condensate demineralizer filters for power units No 3 and 4, core catcher sacrificial materials, control and protection system drives, transfer cask, surge tanks outside the containment, blow down deaerator for power unit No 4 was shipped to the NPP construction site.
The 17th shipload also included filters, pipelines, valves, stationary penetrations and pumps.
The scheduled arrival of the shipload to the Kudankulam construction site is expected to be in July 2020.