Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu), Jan 22
Russia will supply nuclear fuel to the Kudankulam nuclear power
plant it is helping to build in the second quarter of 2007, a top
Russian official said Monday.
Atomstroyexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export
monopoly, has been building the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu since
2002 in line with a 1988 agreement between India and the Soviet
Union and an addendum signed in 1998. The plant is designed to have
a capacity of 2,000 MW.
"In the second quarter of this year, we will deliver nuclear fuel to
the first power unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant," said
the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power Sergei Kiriyenko,
currently on a visit to India said. He added that the first delivery
had already been coordinated with the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Kiriyenko said Russia was prepared to provide the Kudankulam plant
with nuclear fuel throughout its entire operational life, which is
expected to begin later this year.
"Russia believes that India has an unimpeachable reputation in the
nuclear non-proliferation sphere, and therefore we are going to push
for an end to relevant sanctions against India," said Kiriyenko.
India, one of the world's eight confirmed nuclear powers, has never
been party to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has
been under US, Japanese and European sanctions since 1998 when it
tested nuclear weapons.
Kiriyenko visited the construction site of the plant and said it was
his second visit in the past 10 months, adding that a great deal of
work had obviously been done since then.
He also said the Russian and Indian partners had agreed to
accelerate the plant's construction in a bid to finish it ahead of
schedule.
Russia has offered India a government loan on favourable terms for
the Kudankulam project.
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