Russia has offered to provide a Rs 17,000 crore loan to set up the Kudunkulum nuclear power plant (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu. The line of credit is the maximum that the Russians have offered in any sector in India, including defence.
The offer was extended last month in Mumbai, during the visit of a technical delegation from the Russian Atom Energy Export a newly formed organisation to promote the sale of nuclear power plants.
The Russian loan will be to the tune of 85 per cent of the total Rs 20,000 crore project cost of the plant. The balance is to be made up for by the Indian Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC).
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Sources said the Russian loan will be available on soft terms and will cover works, services, supplies and technical support. The NPCs contribution to the project will cover land cost and support systems.
Under the terms offered, the Russians want repayment to begin a year after the plant is commissioned. The loan term will extend over 20 years.
The technical team discussed the detailed project report with the Indians. The government is expected to give its nod to the report by the next quarter, after which it will take 30 months to complete the report. The first of the two 1000 mw units is to be set up within 7 years of the acceptance of the detailed project report. The plant will need 10 years to attain criticality and commence power generation.
India was initially slated to buy an off the shelf NPP from Russia under a 1988 Indo-USSR agreement. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new deal was signed last year by the then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Russian President Boris Yelstin wherein the Kudunkulum plant was to be set up under new terms. The NPP will construct the plant with important sub-assemblies and technical support provided by the Russians as opposed to the earlier deal wherein a working plant was to be bought from the Russians.
The Indian Atomic Energy Agency has already announced that it will open the Kudunkulum plant to the full scope safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency in response to US pressure on Russia not to sell the plant to India as the latter was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Kudunkulum plant will be of a new design called VVER a Russian acronym for water cooled, water moderated energy reactor. The technology has been pioneered by the Russians and is different from the western-sourced reactors currently working in India. The Chernobyl plant is also of the same design. The plant has now started exporting power to neighbouring countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Finland. Russia is in negotiations with Iran, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to set up VVER plants.