The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) announced that the second unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in India would be restarted on 7 October, about a month later than prior expectations.
No reason was given for the delay. However, the first 1,000 MW unit at the plant was synchronized with the grid after a refueling and maintenance outage with power currently up to 300 MW. It was shut down on April 13. The outage include replacement of 54 fuel assemblies, close to a third of its 163 assemblies, which are replaced at each cycle.
The second unit was shut down due to a high hydrogen concentration in the stator.
Without naming the site, Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev told reporters in Vienna that a site had been selected for a Russian-built nuclear power plant in India. However, Likhachev said he would wait for Indian officials to release an official statement on the project before identifying the site.
Although waiting for a statement, “We have already begun discussing conditions and the number of blocks at the site,” he said. He also noted that Russia and India would work together to develop plant projects in other countries. “We started discussing cooperation in implementing projects in third countries. As a flagship pilot project for interaction with the Indians, we took a station in Bangladesh. Indian partners are very sympathetic to this pilot project,” he said, as quoted by the Russian TASS news agency.
“We made sure with our colleagues from Bangladesh that we were on the same stage,” he said. “This autumn we are to enter the first concrete,” on the project in Rooppur that will be the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.