The government has accorded 'in principle' approval of five coastal sites and designated them for locating large capacity Light Water Reactors (LWRs) for Nuclear Energy in cooperation with the Russian Federation, France & the United States.
Details of progress in the Indo-US nuclear deal were given by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
"The fruition of International cooperation in nuclear energy or Indo-US nuclear deal as has been commonly known, has resulted in enabling import of fuel for reactors placed under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards and paved the way for setting up of large capacity Light Water Reactors (LWRs) with foreign technical cooperation," said Dr. Singh, who also holds the charges of Union Minister of State Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.
Dr. Singh said, "The government has accorded 'in principle' approval of five coastal sites and designated them for locating such reactors in cooperation with the Russian Federation, France & the USA. Two projects, KKNPP 3&4 (2X1000 MW) and KKNPP 5&6 (2X1000 MW), to be set up in technical cooperation with Russian Federation at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu have been accorded financial sanction.
Construction of KKNPP 3&4 has commenced. Discussions with technology partners from France and USA have commenced to arrive at viable project proposals".
At present there are nine reactors under construction and another twelve have been accorded administrative approval and financial sanction by the government, work on which is being taken up progressively.
The government has recently accorded financial sanction for ten indigenous 700 MW reactors and two reactors [KKNPP 5&6 (2X1000 MW)] has to be set up in technical cooperation with Russian Federation
The approved completion cost of KKNPP 1 to 6 is Rs. 106740 crore for the total capacity of 6 x 1000 MW.