The Hindu : Fuel supply agreement with Russia for Koodankulam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 22, 2003

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Fuel supply agreement with Russia for Koodankulam

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI March 21. A fuel supply agreement for the Koodankulam nuclear power plant has been signed between India and Russia, Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) officials said.

Work on the two 1000 MWe plants, which started in March 2002, is expected to be completed by 2007. At the present rate of progress — about two per cent every month — the work is likely to be completed six months in advance. Unit-1 is scheduled to begin commercial operations in December 2007 and Unit-2, by the end of 2008.

The NPC said that it has ensured that the `failings' of the Tarapur project — which too depended on fuel from abroad — was taken into consideration when the plan with Russia was finalised.

``The best part of the agreement is that the Russian Federation will supply fuel to the plant for its entire lifespan, be it 30 years or 60 years. Also, the agreement is between two Governments, not merely a commercial contract,'' said S.K. Jain, director (KK- Light Water Reactor), NPC.

The NPC reasoning is that if this was merely a commercial contract, then there was a chance that the terms would be influenced by the change in policies at the political level.

But given the huge investment that the Corporation has made and its intention to go public soon, the Corporation did not want anything to hinder generation at the showcase plant. ``An inter-governmental agreement is much more stronger than a commercial deal. We are happy that apart from the commercial benefits, this is also an agreement between two Governments,'' Mr. Jain said.

Another aspect is the cost itself. While officials were unwilling to talk specifics, they said that they had received the most competitive prices when compared to the world market.

``It is a very good deal. The deal also says that there will be no cost variable for the first five years. In effect, the price from 2006 (when the plant is expected to commence initial runs) to 2011 will be constant. This no other country would offer,'' he added.

This part of the deal of great significance since a third of the fuel assembly in the plant has to be replaced each year (during the annual shut shutdown which lasts for 20-25 days). Also, the spent fuel is not sent back to the Russian Federation; it becomes the property of the Atomic Energy Commission. ``This is another feature which us not present in the Tarapur deal. We can reprocess this spent fuel for any peaceful purpose,'' he said.

The spent fuel will be under the International Atomic Energy Association safeguards and could be an input for the Fast Breeder Reactors, proposed to be set up at Kalpakkam. According to the NPC Senior Executive Director (Technical) V.K. Sharma, the final clearances for the first fast breeder reactor will be accorded in about two months.

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