After Kudankulam’s success, Russia likely to get a second site to build nuclear plant

NEW DELHI: India may offer Russia a second site to build a nuclear power plant. While the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu is backed by Russia, a proposal half a decade ago for a project in West Bengal’s Haripur was dropped due to local protests.

Delhi is in talks with Moscow as well as the Andhra Pradesh government to build a nuclear power plant in the coastal state, officials in the know said. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh is also set to become home to another nuclear power plant, to be built by the Americans – General Electric has been allocated a site in the state for a project. Another US company, Westinghouse, is in advanced stage for concluding a commercial contract to supply reactors for a plant in Gujarat.

PM Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the issue of additional nuclear power plants in India beyond Kudankulam when the Russian leader was here last December.

The matter came up for deliberations again when the two met for 90 minutes in Ufa ahead of the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits last month.

The Department of Atomic Energy is in discussions with Andhra Pradesh over the possible site for the Russian project, said the officials. The proposed US plant by GE will be at Kovvada in the state’s Srikakulam district.

During Putin’s December 2014 visit, the two sides signed a document defining plans for Russia to assist in building at least 12 nuclear power plants in India. In fact, cooperation in the field of nuclear energy was one of the main issues discussed by Modi and Putin in Ufa on July 8, with emphasis on future construction of facilities in India, an official said.