Thaindian News

Chennai, Oct 27 (IANS) Russia has not supplied any faulty equipment for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) but has replaced free of cost some of the components that have been upgraded or were damaged in transit, officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) said Thursday.

Strongly refuting a news report on the website of a Mumbai based daily, an NPCIL official told IANS: “The Kudankulam power project is a massive one with several shipments of equipments. It is natural that some of the items get damaged while in transit. As per the contract, the damaged items have been replaced by the Russians free of cost.”

India’s nuclear power plant operator NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW nuclear power reactors with Russian technology and equipment in Kudankulam, around 650 km from here. The first unit is expected to go on stream in December. The project cost is estimated around Rs.13,000 crore.

The NPCIL official said that the Russians have, in fact, supplied an upgraded rotor in place of earlier version. “The Russians actually test their turbines in a test bed to check whether it functions as per specifications before they are shipped out,” he stated.

According to NPCIL officials, besides many air shipments, more than 62 ships have delivered the equipments for the first and second nuclear power plant being built at Kudankulam.

Around 120,000 tonnes of power plant equipment have landed in Kudankulam, and during transit some got damaged.

“The Russians have replaced the damaged items free of cost,” an official told IANS.

NPCIL officials said it is normal for technical personnel from the equipment suppliers to come to the project site and there is nothing unusual about it.

Meanwhile, the protest fast by people against the KNPP continued for the 10th day Thursday in Idinthakarai near Kudankulam.

“People from Kuttukulai and Kuttapanai villages are on relay fast today. There are around 500-600 protestors at the venue (Idinthakarai village),” S. Sivasubramanian, coordinator of the People’s Rights Movement, an organisation fighting for the plant’s closure, told IANS.

Referring to the expert committee set up by the central government to discuss the issue with protestors, he said: “We are not against any committee. The state government has passed a resolution to halt all project related work. Let NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) first stop the work. We will then talk to the expert committee.”

The Tamil Nadu government has been silent on the expert committee.

On Oct 20, the central government set up a 15-member expert group that will interact with the officials of the state government and representatives of the people and activists in Tirunelveli, who have been opposing the KNPP on various safety-related issues.