Ready to build high-capacity nuclear power units at a new site in India: Russia

Mumbai: Russia has said it is ready for serious expansion of cooperation with India in the area of atomic energy, including building high-capacity nuclear power units at a new site in India.

Department of Atomic Energy secretary Ajit Kumar Mohanty on Thursday met with Alexey Likhachev, the Director General of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation of Russia and discussed ways to further bolster nuclear energy cooperation between two countries.

A statement by Rosatom said officials of the two sides visited the site of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex (PDEC) being built in Seversk, Tomsk region in Russia.

During the joint visit, a full-scale discussion took place on the prospective areas of Russian-Indian cooperation in the nuclear field, the statement added.

"We are ready for serious expansion of the cooperation with India in the field of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. This include, first of all, serial construction of the Russian-designed high-capacity nuclear power units at a new site in India, implementation of land-based and floating low-power generation projects, cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle area, as well as in the field of non-power applications of nuclear technologies," Likhachev said.

Rosatom did not elaborate the type of nuclear power reactors it intends to make on the new site in India.

Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India is looking for additional sites for Russian nuclear reactors.

Russia and India are collaborating on building six 1,000 MW nuclear reactors each in Kudankulam (in Tamil Nadu), of which two have been commissioned.

"Alexey Likhachev and Ajit Kumar Mohanty also discussed the progress of the joint Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project being constructed as per the Russian design in the southern India, comprising six power units equipped with light-water reactors, each of 1,000 MW capacity," the statement added.