india

Updated: Jun 10, 2014 01:03 IST

India can reprocess its spent nuclear fuel at Kudankulam as per the framework of the signed agreement, says Russia.

“However, if it wants Russia to reprocess the fuel, it has to sign a special agreement,” Anzhelika Khaperskaya, chief manager of Spent Nuclear Fuel System Creation of the State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, said at the Atomexpo 2014 (the sixth international nuclear energy conference that was inaugurated at Moscow on Monday).

The Kudankulam units comprise 1,000 MW reactors of the VVER-1000 model being constructed by the NPCIL and Russia’s Atomstroyexport company, a Rosatom subsidiary.

The first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant (KKNPP) attained its maximum capacity of 1000 MW on Saturday, thus becoming the largest electricity-generating plant of any type in the country.

Anzhelika said that Russia had plans to create the best nuclear waste management system in the world by 2025 and will be more than willing to assist India in treating nuclear waste.

The basis of the Russian Federation policy in the field of spent-nuclear fuel management is the principle of its reprocessing to ensure the environmentally acceptable treatment of fission products and return to the nuclear fuel cycle nuclear recyclable materials, she said.

Safety assurance is an imperative for Rosatom, she said adding: “ The Russian system of SNF management will provide a safe management of the spent nuclear fuel at all the stages from the nuclear power production to the radioactive waste storage We plan to establish a SNF management complex with complete set of services by 2030.”



(The journalist is in Moscow on the invitation of Rosatom.)