Russian company starts manufacturing equipment for Kudankulam NPP, power unit 5

Despite the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Indian-Russian nuclear energy cooperation continues. Russian company Petrozavodskmash, AEM-Technologies, JSC Branch (a part of the machine-building division of Rosatom State Corporation – Atomenergomash) has started manufacturing guide vanes.

These guide vanes are for the housings of reactor coolant pump sets (RCPS) which are for the Kudankulam NPP, power unit 5 in India.

According to a company note issued by Moscow, the first guide vane has been completed and it has passed the fitting-up and welding operations. For the other three guide vanes, the fit-up quality has already been inspected and Petrozavodskmash workers have started welding operations.

More about Guide Vanes

These refer to the RCPS internals and it has upper and lower disks and 13 guide blades are meant to be welded.

Then the guide vane is mounted in the pump housing rigidly and is meant for setting the centrifugal direction of coolant flow inside the pump.

According to the company note, the RCPS housing is the first safety class item. And the reactor plant equipment of one power unit includes four RCP sets.

More about Kudankulam NPP

It is a nuclearpower plant which is equipped with VVER-1000 reactors and is located in the south of India in Tamil Nadu state.

India and Russia had signed the General Framework Agreement (GFA) on April 10, 2014. This was related to the construction of Units 3, 4, and the negotiations with the Indian side had started regarding the construction of Kudankulam NPP Units 5, 6. The agreement was reached that the Units 5&6 would be constructed in compliance with the same design for Units 3 & 4.

And on June 1, 2017, the Credit Protocol to the Intergovernmental Agreement of December 05, 2008 and the GFA for Kudankulam NPP Units 5, 6 were signed.

And as has been reported earlier by Financial Express Online, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and the Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation has inked an agreement on the third stage construction for Units 5 and 6 of Kudankulam NPP in 2017.