Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during bilateral meeting in New Delhi.
India and Russia on Friday signed a document for cooperation to implement new nuclear power plant (NPP). The document was signed following the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit in New Delhi.
The document- 'Action Plan for Prioritisation and Implementation of Cooperation Areas in the Nuclear Field' was signed by Director General of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Cooperation Alexey Likhachev and Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman of Atomic Energy and Commission Kamlesh Vyas.
Under the new pact, the two countries plan to implement the project of six nuclear power plants of Russian design at a new site in India, as well as further cooperation in third countries in new promising areas of nuclear technology, apart from the construction of nuclear power plants. At present, India and Russia are jointly involved in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project in Bangladesh.
According to the document, Russia will offer the reference evolutionary VVER-1200 technical solutions of the generation '3+ for the new nuclear project and will increase the level of Indian industry's involvement and localisation. The pact is expected to be a major boost to the Make in India initiative as it will lead to manufacturing of nuclear fuel assemblies in India and majority of the equipment and material used for the NPPs will be made locally.
“We are satisfied with our strategic cooperation with India, where the Russian designed nuclear power units are operating and being constructed at Kudankulam site. We expect to start implementation in the near future serial construction of new units at a second site in India. This will significantly increase level of equipment localization within framework of the “Make in India” policy, as well as optimize timing and cost of the project execution. Moreover, India is our trusted partner, with whom we are already implementing projects in the third countries, and we plan to enhance this cooperation,” Likhachev said.
VVER-1200 is a flagship Russia nuclear reactor which has 20 per cent more power generating capacity than VVER-1000 that are used in India's Kudankulam units.
