Russian offers India advanced nuclear fuel for Kudankulam NPP

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Russia is ready to transition Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to the advanced type of nuclear fuel TVS-2M with participation of Russian specialists as soon as possible, Vice-President of the Tvel - fuel company of Rosatom Oleg Grigoriev told TASS on Tuesday. "We are ready to transition Kudankulam NPP to the fuel as soon as possible in compliance with all the requirements of the Indian regulator for safety and security of fuel assemblies," he said. Grigoriev noted that the continuous improvement of nuclear fuel is one of the main competitive advantages of Russia in the nuclear field, and the company is investing "significant resources and efforts in science" for further developments. According to him, at the time of the decision to construction the first reactors of Russian design in India, UTVS design was the most correspondent to the India’s needs. The design is exported until this day. Now the Russian side offers Indian partners a more modern design of nuclear fuel - TVS-2M with improved economic and technical characteristics. "The only restriction for this project is time - UTVS fuel has been developed under the agreement of the parties for the next 3-4 years. As soon as it is used up, the station will use the new type of fuel," Grigoriev said, adding that in case the Indian side agrees with another project formula, transition to the new fuel will be faster. "In any case, we are interested. Our strategic priority is to fully satisfy the requirements of our customers. In transitioning to TVS-2M, the customer will not face any additional complications. We offer our partners only verified and reference nuclear fuel that previously has passed all stages of testing in Russia. This type of fuel assemblies is no exception," he said. Read more