The Hindu : National : NSG guidelines don't prohibit preparatory work for additional reactors: Shmatko

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Friday, Jan 26, 2007
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National

National

NSG guidelines don't prohibit preparatory work for additional reactors: Shmatko

R. Ramachandran

New Delhi: The Indian department of atomic energy (DAE) and the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) for building four additional reactors at Koondankulam, where two Russian 1,000 MWe VVER reactors are currently under construction. These additional blocks would be identical to the units under construction.

Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and Sergei Kiriyenko, Chief of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, signed the MoI.

This is to be followed up by an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between the two countries similar to the one that governs the supply and execution of units Koondankulam— 1and 2. The original IGA of 1988 and the revised IGA of 1998 specify only two reactor units at Koondankulam.

"We hope that in the nearest future the inter-governmental agreement will be signed," said Sergey Shmatko, President of AtomStroyExport (ASE), in an exclusive interview to The Hindu . ASE is the nuclear plants and systems exporting arm of the Russian atomic energy agency. ASE and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) are executing the Koondankulam project jointly.

According to Mr. Shmatko, this will pave the way for a general agreement as well as a special contract between ASE and the NPCIL for the construction of the additional plants at Koondankulam. "Just after this [contract] we will start the preparatory work for building the next two units," Mr. Shmatko said.

`Will respect guidelines'

Asked whether such work can be started given the constraining guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Mr. Shmatko said that there was no embargo imposed by the guidelines on preparatory work. He, however, added that Russia would respect the NSG guidelines. "But we hope that the change in the Indian status vis-à-vis the NSG will happen quickly. In any case, preparatory work could start before that," Mr. Shmatko said.

Though the MoI and the pending IGA are with regard to Koondankulam only, Russia has plans to supply reactors to other sites in India as well, according to him. However, there have been no discussions on that front yet, he said. When asked if the Koondankulam site could accommodate more reactors of the VVER-1000 type, Mr. Shmatko said that technically it is possible to build two more units.

Mr. Shmatko informed that the core reactor system for Unit-1 of Koondankulam was supplied on January 22 and is being integrated. The fuel for this unit will be supplied by the second quarter of 2007.

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