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Towards talks on reactors from Russia

The Indo-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement initialled by Nuclear Power Corporation head S.K. Jain and State Secretary Nikolai Spassky of Russia’s Atomic Energy Agency in New Delhi on Monday opens the way for negotiating a commercial contract for the supply of four additional Russian reactors at Koodankulam. “The way is now open for work on the contract,” an official spokesman for the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, said.

India’s decision not to sign the agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Russia visit in November 2007 raised a few eyebrows in Moscow. The delay in signing the agreement pushed back the preparation of the contract for the supply of the reactors.

“Construction work for the additional reactors can only start after a contract has been signed. But before the contract is drafted Russia and India must first sign or initial an intergovernmental agreement,” Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov told The Hindu. “In [the] case of Bulgaria [which last month signed a deal for two Russian reactors] it took the sides a full year to negotiate the contract.”

Had India signed a full-fledged agreement with Russia instead of a memorandum of intent during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India a year ago, the commercial contract for the four reactors would have probably be ready by now.

When the long-awaited accord failed to materialise during the November summit, Indian officials said no nuclear energy accords could be signed till India reaches agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for the lifting of restrictions on civil nuclear technology trade. Russian sources for their part blamed U.S. pressure for New Delhi’s decision to back off from the deal. By initialling the agreement now the sides have found a way to push ahead with the deal without formally sealing it.

“Initialling means that the text of the agreement cannot be changed, and the sides can therefore go ahead with the drafting of the contract,” Mr. Novikov said.

The commercial contract can be signed even before India has completed talks with the IAEA and the NSG, according to Sergey Shmatko, president of Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear technology exporting company. The contract must include a rider linking its implementation to the approval of IAEA safeguards. However, Atomstroyexport can “start the preparatory work for building the next two units” even before that, Mr. Shmatko told The Hindu last year.

“If the contract is ready by the time India gets green light from the IAEA and the NSG, construction of the reactors may be started without delay,” Mr. Novikov said.

The Russians are confident of their position in the Indian atomic energy market and do not fear international competition. First, Russia is the only reactor-exporting country to have a foothold in India. It is completing the construction of two 1,000-Mwe reactors at Koodankulam. The first reactor is expected to go operational next year.

“First come, first served,” said Dr. Leonid Bolshov, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Safe Atomic Energy. “To be sure, U.S. Westinghouse and France’s Areva will eventually come to India because it is a vast market. Meanwhile, Russia is expanding its presence on the Indian nuclear energy market, thereby is also improving its competitive edge on other markets.”

Russia has by far the richest experience in the world in building commercial reactors. It is currently setting up 12 nuclear reactors — five at home and seven abroad. This is more than all its Western competitors — French-German Areva-Siemens, Canada’s AECL and U.S.-Japanese Toshiba-Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi — are building between them.

“Russia is the world leader in nuclear technology,” says Mr. Novikov. “Our reactors are absolutely competitive in terms of price and offer the best mix of active and passive safety barriers. Two Russia-built 1000-Mwe reactors commissioned at Tianwan NPP in China last year prove the point.”

Russia won the contract to supply two reactors for the Belene power plant in Bulgaria in a race against a consortium of Czech Skoda JS and Toshiba-Westinghouse. The deal marked a breakthrough for Russia in the European market — it is for the first time that post-Soviet Russia will build nuclear reactors in a European Union country.

Last year, Russia launched an ambitious expansion programme aimed at raising nuclear power’s share of its electricity grid from 16 per cent today to 25 per cent by 2030. It should also enable Russia to increase its presence in the global nuclear market. Under the plan, more than 80 nuclear-related firms will be consolidated into a single state-owned giant that will control every stage of civil atomic engineering from uranium mining to construction and export of power stations to fuel enrichment to decommissioning old reactors.

Beginning in 2010, Russia will commission two nuclear reactors a year. It also plans to supply at least 40 reactors to foreign customers till 2030. To cope with this, the country has embarked on large-scale cooperation with foreign manufacturers of nuclear energy equipment. Last month, Russia’s nuclear engineering giant Atomenergomash set up a joint venture with France’s Alstom, a leading producer of nuclear power equipment, for the manufacture of “Arabelle” low-speed turbines of high capacity. For the Belene plant, Atomstroyexport has teamed up with France’s Areva and Germany’s Siemens.

At the heart of the Russian nuclear energy expansion plans is a new reactor design. A new standardised power plant, AES-2006, incorporates a third-generation VVER-1200 reactor of 1170 MWe. This is an advanced version of the well-proved VVER-1000 installed at Koodankulam. It has a longer life-span of 50 years, will operate at a thermal efficiency of almost 35 per cent and maintain a 90 per cent lifetime capacity factor. It can withstand an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale and a direct impact from a large aircraft. Construction of AES-2006 plants has already started at Novovoronezh Site-II and Leningrad Phase-II power stations.

The additional reactors for Koodankulam will be of the VVER-1200 type. Mr. Novikov confirmed that Russia would also be prepared to build nuclear reactors in India at sites other than Koodankulam. Russian nuclear technology supplies would have no Hyde Act kind of strings or restrictions attached to them. Moreover, Russia has offered to provide India with safeguards against a sudden cutoff of fuel supplies by other countries. Moscow has invited India to join an international nuclear fuel facility it has set up in Angarsk in Eastern Siberia.

The Angarsk centre operating under IAEA control will provide low-enriched uranium (LEU) to countries that have their fuel supplies cut off as a result of some sort of political pressure.

“It is essentially a last-resort fuel tank,” explains Mr. Novikov. “If India faces problems getting fuel from the market it can procure a supply of LEU for one load of reactor active zone from Angarsk, and either process it into pellets and fuel rods itself or get the job done by some other nuclear fuel manufacturer under agreement with IAEA.”

As for the nuclear reactors Russia has supplied or will supply to India in future, they are all assured of life-long supply of fuel, Mr. Novikov said.

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