Russia’s state-owned nuclear engineer Rosatom has taken advantage of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Moscow to propose building six reactors in India, Newsweek reports.
While in Moscow, Modi visited the Atom Exhibition Pavilion at the VDNKh exhibition site.
The move follows an earlier offer by President Macron of France to organise six EDF reactors at the Jaitapur nuclear power station in Maharashtra (see further reading).
No further information on the offer, or the Indian reaction to it, has been reported.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the two sides may also agree to a long-term uranium supply deal for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.
Uranium prices have more than tripled since 2020 as demand for nuclear power grows.
India is able to do these deals with Russia because cooperation on civilian nuclear energy is not included in the West’s sanction regime, although in May the US passed a law banning the import of Russia’s enriched uranium.
India has its own uranium source in the northern state of Jharkhand, but reserves are depleting.
Vinay Kwarta, India’s foreign secretary, said Friday that work on the Kudankulam plant, set to become the largest in India, was progressing. He said units 1 and 2 have already become operational, and the work was advancing on units 3 and 6.
The plant is being built by Rosatom, which is installing six of its VVER-1000 reactors, creating a 6GW plant.
- Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
Further reading:
